IAU Symposium 278, the ninth of the 'Oxford' conferences on cultural astronomy, presents a diverse range of disciplinary perspectives on a set of problems that continue to raise exciting and challenging new research questions and promote vigorous debate. It extends discussions about cultural astronomy beyond the community of 'Western' academics to focus on the ethnoastronomy and archaeoastronomy of South America, Central and North America, and elsewhere. Highlights include vigourous debates about Chankillo, a recently discovered solar observation site in coastal Peru dating to c. 300 BC. The...

IAU Symposium 310 takes a broad look at the complexity of planetary systems, in terms of the formation and dynamical evolution of planets, their satellites, minor bodies and space debris, as well as to the habitability of exoplanets, in order to understand and model their physical processes. The main topics covered are diverse, including: studies of the rotation of planets and satellites, including their internal structures; the long term evolution of space debris and satellites; planetary and satellite migration mechanisms; and the role of the Yarkovsky effect on the evolution of the...

Highlights of Astronomy, Volume 16, summarizes the proceedings of the IAU XXVIII General Assembly held in Beijing, 20 31 August 2012, which brought together more than 2700 astronomers from 75 member countries. The wide range of topics cover the latest developments in almost every area of modern astronomy, including star formation, galaxies, the accelerating cosmos and dark energy, massive stars, high-energy emission in AGN, space-time reference systems, intergalactic magnetic fields, star-planet relations, the interstellar medium, data intensive astronomy, future large scale facilities, and...

IAU Symposium 309 contains contributions on the timely theme of spatially and energetically resolved properties of galaxies. New technologies in 3D spectroscopy in the optical and near-infrared regimes, and radio interferometry, allow for the first time the efficient mapping of stars, gas and dust in galaxies near and far. This volume demonstrates how detailed measurements of individual objects are complemented by surveys aiming at a full census of galaxies across the local Universe. Reaching out to the limits of the Universe, the evolution of spatially resolved properties is traced...

Massive stars play a crucial role in the Universe: they are important drivers for the photometric and chemical evolution of galaxies; they are sources of important elements, including those necessary for life; and, with their strong winds and supernova explosions, they feed the interstellar medium with momentum and kinetic energy, impacting on the star formation rate. Knowledge of the evolution of massive stars is important not only for stellar physics, but also for probing the evolution of galaxies and their star formation histories throughout cosmic time. This volume provides an...

The advent of advanced astronomical instruments and huge surveys means that the twenty-first century is witnessing a rapid growth in astrostatistical science. Interpreting the cosmic microwave background, weak and strong gravitational lensing, galaxy clustering and other signatures of the early Universe all require advanced statistical techniques. Led by members of the IAU's newly formed Working Group in Astrostatistics and Astroinformatics, IAU Symposium 306 emphasises the intricate mathematical methods needed to extract scientific insights from large and complicated datasets. It contains...

A record of the formal organisational and administrative proceedings of the IAU XXVIII General Assembly which took place in Beijing.

A key reference concerning the nearest-known examples of young stars and for studying the exoplanets that orbit them.

Presents cross-disciplinary research on asteroid origins, collisional evolution, orbital evolution, rotational evolution and evolutional coupling, for graduate students and researchers.

At the XXIX IAU General Assembly held in Honolulu from 3-14 August 2015, the meetings known as Special Sessions and Joint Discussions were replaced by new 'Focus Meetings'. Astronomy in Focus XXIXB presents the most relevant contributions from the Focus Meetings together with summaries of all the accepted papers and posters. It covers the following topics: the legacy of Planck; x-ray surveys of the hot and energetic cosmos; stellar physics in galaxies; stellar explosions; gravitational waves and structure formation; the search for water and life's building blocks; red supergiants in the local...