Related papers: The Solar Galactic Environment
The dynamic activity of the Sun -- sustained by a magnetohydrodynamic dynamo mechanism working in its interior -- modulates the electromagnetic, particulate and radiative environment in space. While solar activity variations on short…
The evolution of galaxies is driven strongly by dynamical processes including internal instabilities, tidal interactions and mergers. The cluster environment is a useful laboratory for studying these effects. I present recent results on…
Evidence is emerging for physical links among clouds, global temperatures, the global atmospheric electrical circuit and cosmic ray ionisation. The global circuit extends throughout the atmosphere from the planetary surface to the lower…
Stars grow by accreting gas that has an evolving composition owing to the growth and inward drift of dust (pebble wave), the formation of planetesimals and planets, and the selective removal of hydrogen and helium by disk winds. We…
The chemical composition of the Sun is among the most important quantities in astrophysics. Solar abundances are needed for modelling stellar atmospheres, stellar structure and evolution, population synthesis, and galaxies as a whole. The…
Diffuse intracluster light (ICL) has now been observed in nearby and in intermediate redshift clusters. Individual intracluster stars have been detected in the Virgo and Coma clusters and the first color-magnitude diagram and velocity…
A catalogue of superclusters of galaxies is used to investigate the influence of the supercluster environment on galaxy populations, considering galaxies brighter than M$_r<$-21+5$\log$ h. Empirical spectral synthesis techniques are applied…
For the past 150 years, the prevailing view of the local Interstellar Medium (ISM) was based on a peculiarity known as the Gould's Belt, an expanding ring of young stars, gas, and dust, tilted about 20$^\circ$ to the Galactic plane. Still,…
Helioseismology has taught us a great deal about the stratification and kinematics of the solar interior, sufficient for us to embark upon dynamical studies more detailed than have been possible before. The most sophisticated studies to…
The Earth's magnetosphere extension is controlled by the solar activity level via solar wind properties. Understanding such a relation in the Solar System is important for predicting also the condition of exoplanetary magnetospheres near…
The local interstellar magnetic field affects both the heliosphere and the surrounding cluster of interstellar clouds (CLIC). Measurements of linearly polarized starlight provide the only test of the magnetic field threading the CLIC.…
We have constructed a large, uniform galaxy cluster catalog from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey data. By studying the morphology--cluster-centric-radius relation, we have found two characteristic environments where galaxy morphologies change…
The variability in the magnetic activity of the Sun is the main source of the observed changes in the plasma and electromagnetic environments within the heliosphere. The primary way in which solar activity affects the Earth's environment is…
Cloud environment is thought to play a critical role in determining the mechanism of formation of massive stars. In this contribution we review the physical characteristics of the environment around recently formed massive stars. Particular…
We study the inverse Compton scattering of solar photons by Galactic cosmic-ray electrons. We show that the gamma-ray emission from this process is substantial with the maximum flux in the direction of the Sun; the angular distribution of…
Stellar winds form an integral part of astronomy. The solar wind affects Earth's magnetosphere, while the winds of hot massive stars are highly relevant for galactic feedback through their mechanical wind energy. In different parts of the…
Deep photometric surveys of the Milky Way have revealed diffuse structures encircling our Galaxy far beyond the "classical" limits of the stellar disk. This paper reviews results from our own and other observational programs, which together…
Analysis of interstellar absorption lines observed in high-resolution {\em HST} spectra of nearby stars provides temperatures, turbulent velocities, and kinetic properties of warm interstellar clouds. Previous studies identified 15 warm…
The Sun is located in a low-density region of the interstellar medium partially filled with hot gas that is the likely result of several nearby supernova explosions within the last 10 Myr. Here we use astrometric data to show that part of…
The solar interior has been scrutinized by two different and independent probes during the last twenty years with important revisions of the solar model, including a recent heavy element abundance revision. Today, we get a quantitatively…