No Arabic abstract
The last part of SpS5 dealt with the circumstellar environment. Structures are indeed found around several types of massive stars, such as blue and red supergiants, as well as WRs and LBVs. As shown in the last years, the potential of IR for their study is twofold: first, IR can help discover many previously unknown nebulae, leading to the identification of new massive stars as their progenitors; second, IR can help characterize the nebular features. Current and new IR facilities thus pave the way to a better understanding of the feedback from massive stars.
The development of infrared observational facilities has revealed a number of massive stars in obscured environments throughout the Milky Way and beyond. The determination of their stellar and wind properties from infrared diagnostics is thus required to take full advantage of the wealth of observations available in the near and mid infrared. However, the task is challenging. This session addressed some of the problems encountered and showed the limitations and successes of infrared studies of massive stars.
Angular momentum (AM) is a key parameter to understand galaxy formation and evolution. AM originates in tidal torques between proto-structures at turn around, and from this the specific AM is expected to scale as a power-law of slope 2/3 with mass. However, subsequent evolution re-shuffles this through matter accretion from filaments, mergers, star formation and feedback, secular evolution and AM exchange between baryons and dark matter. Outer parts of galaxies are essential to study since they retain most of the AM and the diagnostics of the evolution. Galaxy IFU surveys have recently provided a wealth of kinematical information in the local universe. In the future, we can expect more statistics in the outer parts, and evolution at high z, including atomic gas with SKA.
The Carina Nebula complex (CNC) represents one of the most massive star-forming regions in our Galaxy and shows strong feedback from the high massive stars. We use our Herschel FIR observations to study the properties of the clouds over the entire area of the CNC. The good angular resolution of the Herschel maps corresponds to physical scales of 0.1 - 0.4 pc, and allows us to analyze the small-scale structures of the clouds. The full extent of the CNC was mapped with PACS and SPIRE from 70 to 500 micron. We determine temperatures and column densities at each point in this maps by modeling the observed FIR SEDs. We also derive a map showing the strength of the UV field. We investigate the relation between the cloud properties and the spatial distribution of the high-mass stars, and compute total cloud masses for different density thresholds. Our Herschel maps resolve, for the first time, the small-scale structure of the dense clouds. Several particularly interesting regions, including the prominent pillars south of eta Car, are analyzed in detail. We compare the cloud masses derived from the Herschel data to previous mass estimates based on sub-mm and molecular line data. Our maps also reveal a peculiar wave-like pattern in the northern part of the Carina Nebula. Finally, we characterize two prominent cloud complexes at the periphery of our Herschel maps, which are probably molecular clouds in the Galactic background. We find that the density and temperature structure of the clouds in most parts of the CNC is dominated by the strong feedback from the numerous massive stars, rather than random turbulence. Comparing the cloud mass and the star formation rate derived for the CNC to other Galactic star forming regions suggests that the CNC is forming stars in an particularly efficient way. We suggest this to be a consequence of triggered star formation by radiative cloud compression.
We systematically investigated the heating of coronal loops on metal-free stars with various stellar masses and magnetic fields by magnetohydrodynamic simulations. It is found that the coronal property is dependent on the coronal magnetic field strength $B_{rm c}$ because it affects the difference of the nonlinearity of the Alfv{e}nic waves. Weaker $B_{rm c}$ leads to cooler and less dense coronae because most of the input waves dissipate in the lower atmosphere on account of the larger nonlinearity. Accordingly EUV and X-ray luminosities also correlate with $B_{rm c}$, while they are emitted in a wide range of the field strength. Finally we extend our results to evaluating the contribution from low-mass Population III coronae to the cosmic reionization. Within the limited range of our parameters on magnetic fields and loop lengths, the EUV and X-ray radiations give a weak impact on the ionization and heating of the gas at high redshifts. However, there still remains a possibility of the contribution to the reionization from energetic flares involving long magnetic loops.
In this brief communication we provide the rationale for, and the outcome of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) resolution vote at the XXIX-th General Assembly in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 2015, on recommended nominal conversion constants for selected solar and planetary properties. The problem addressed by the resolution is a lack of established conversion constants between solar and planetary values and SI units: a missing standard has caused a proliferation of solar values (e.g., solar radius, solar irradiance, solar luminosity, solar effective temperature and solar mass parameter) in the literature, with cited solar values typically based on best estimates at the time of paper writing. As precision of observations increases, a set of consistent values becomes increasingly important. To address this, an IAU Working Group on Nominal Units for Stellar and Planetary Astronomy formed in 2011, uniting experts from the solar, stellar, planetary, exoplanetary and fundamental astronomy, as well as from general standards fields to converge on optimal values for nominal conversion constants. The effort resulted in the IAU 2015 Resolution B3, passed at the IAU General Assembly by a large majority. The resolution recommends the use of nominal solar and planetary values, which are by definition exact and are expressed in SI units. These nominal values should be understood as conversion factors only, not as the true solar/planetary properties or current best estimates. Authors and journal editors are urged to join in using the standard values set forth by this resolution in future work and publications to help minimize further confusion.