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It was around 1600 when William Gilbert, then physician to Queen Elisabeth I of England, first proposed that the Earth acted as a permanent magnet with the form of a sphere. Since then, the study of the structure of the magnetic field of the Earth, its origin, how it is sustained and the ways it interacts with the Sun (mainly, by its reaction to the solar wind; see Chap. 7) have captivated the interest of many researchers. Not just because of scientific curiosity, but also because its mere existence plays a crucial role in our own. Indeed, life on Earth would have been very different (if it had appeared at all) in the absence of a magnetic field that could shield it from the solar wind (SW) and other highly-energetic cosmic radiations.

It was shown earlier that the fundamentals of classical dynamics, based on hydrostatics, do not satisfy the solution of dynamical problems of celestial bodies (Ferronsky and Ferronsky 2010; Ferronsky et al. 2011). The discovered common dynamical effect of orbiting the creating planets and satellites with the first cosmic velocity proves correct for this purpose Jacobi’s dynamical (oscillating) approach. In this connection, in Chaps. 2 and 3, the physical meaning of the hydrostatic and dynamic equilibrium of celestial bodies is discussed in detail.

Sporadic E layers have been observed on a global scale using GPS radio occultation measurements performed by the CHAMP, GRACE and FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC satellites. This has been done by analysing signal amplitude variations of the GPS L1 signal. The global distribution of sporadic E layer occurrence shows strong variations on different time scales with highest sporadic E occurrence rates during the afternoon at the midlatitudes of the summer hemisphere. Furthermore, sporadic E occurrence depends on several geophysical parameters such as dynamic conditions in the lower thermosphere, intensity of Earth’s magnetic field and meteor flux. The connection between the global sporadic E occurrence in dependence on these parameters is discussed in this chapter.

The chapter reviews the historical phases of cosmic ray research from the very beginning around 1900 until the 1940s when first particle accelerators replaced cosmic particles as source for elementary particle interactions. In opposite to the discovery of X-rays or the ionising α-, β- and γ-rays, it was an arduous path to the definite acceptance of the new radiation. The starting point was the explanation that air becomes conductive by the ionising radiation of radioactive elements in the surroundings. In the following years the penetration power of the radiation was studied with the result, that there seems be a component harder than the known γ-rays. Victor F. Hess did in 1912 the key experiment with a hydrogen balloon. He measured with three detectors an increase of ionisation up to altitudes of 5 300 m and discovered the extraterrestrial penetrating radiation. The next phase is characterised by W. Kolhorster’s confirmation in 1914, doubts by R.A. Millikan and others as well as the spectacular re-discovery of cosmic rays by Millikan in 1926. With the invention of new detectors as the cloud chamber and the Geiger–Muller counter and of the coincidence method the properties of cosmic rays could be investigated. One of the striking results was the discovery that cosmic rays are of corpuscular nature. The broad research activities starting end of the 1920s were the begin of a scientific success story, which nobody of the early protagonists might have imagined. In 1932 C.D. Anderson discovered the antiparticle of the electron. It was the birth of elementary particle physics. Four years later the muon was discovered which was for many years wrongly assumed to be the carrier of the short range nuclear force predicted by H. Yukawa. One of the last high-lights before the particle accelerators took over this field of fundamental research was the discovery of the Yukawa particle. In photographic emulsions exposed by cosmic particles the pion was found in 1947. This part of the story ends with first accelerator experiments performed at the Berkeley synchro-cyclotron.

Very high energy (VHE) gamma quanta contribute only to a minuscule fraction – below one per million – to the flux of cosmic rays. Nevertheless, being neutral particles they are currently the best “messengers” of processes from the relativistic/ultra-relativistic Universe because they can be extrapolated back to their origin. The window of VHE gamma rays was opened only in 1989 by the Whipple collaboration, reporting the observation of TeV gamma rays from the Crab nebula. After a slow start, this new field of research is now rapidly expanding with the discovery of more than 150 VHE gamma-ray emitting sources. Progress is intimately related with the steady improvement of detectors and rapidly increasing computing power. We give an overview of the early attempts before and around 1989 and the progress after the pioneering work of the Whipple collaboration. Before describing the important experiments that paved the way towards the current observations, a short review of gamma rays as cosmic messengers and the general concept of detecting and filtering them from the vast majority of charged cosmic rays will be given in the introduction. The main part of the chapter on VHE gamma-ray astronomy highlights the various experiments that have pushed the field to the current success. At the end, a short overview of the challenging physics questions will be given summarizing the goals of the experiments in order to give a coherent picture of the underlying reasons behind the experiments. In coherence with the energy range of cosmic rays observable from Earth, we will set the lower energy limit to about 30 GeV above which ground-based observations with the most powerful instruments are now possible. Below this energy range observations can only be performed with balloon or satellite-borne detectors. Their detection range is below the classical cosmic-ray energy range.

Our ability to travel in space is badly limited. This is much felt in the process of extending distance measurements into deep space. Paul Hodge (1981) once began his review: “The determination of the extragalactic distance scale, like so many problems that occupy astronomers’ attention, is essentially an impossible task”. In fact, he was quite optimistic, and how else, the life is full of impossible things that nevertheless have been done.

Combining observation with mathematics can result in unexpected ways of probing the world—small and large. Examples start in Antiquity when Thales measured the height of a pyramid, using the length of its shadow at the very moment when the shadow cast by a vertical rod was as long as the rod itself. It is also told that he inferred the distance of a boat from the shore, without stretching any tape measure between them. Astronomers have made analogous things throughout history when constructing the cosmic distance ladder.

The height of the Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) is an important quantity for certain applications such as dispersion modeling. A dedicated two-dimensional PBL height analysis has been developed as an additional component of NCEP’s Real-Time Mesoscale Analysis. As for other meteorological analysis applications, the quality of the output is dependent on the quality of the input, including the observation. Here we assess the quality and potential for use in the PBL height analysis of a series of candidate observations, including Radiosonde Observations (RAOBS), Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS), Cooperative Agency Profilers (CAP), COSMIC satellite Radio Occultation and NWS Next-Rad radar reflectivities. The quality is assessed both by physical plausibility of the measurements and by comparison of the observations and the resulting analysis with independent observations not used in the analysis.

We examine the necessary physical underpinnings for setting up the cosmological standard model with a global cosmic time parameter. In particular, we discuss the role of Weyl’s principle which asserts that cosmic matter moves according to certain regularity requirements. After a brief historical introduction to Weyl’s principle we argue that although the principle is often not explicitly mentioned in modern standard texts on cosmology, it is implicitly assumed and is, in fact, necessary for a physically well-defined notion of cosmic time. We finally point out that Weyl’s principle might be in conflict with the wide-spread idea that the universe at some very early stage can be described exclusively in terms of quantum theory.

Cosmological and astrophysical observations show with outstanding evidence that more than 80% of the matter density in the Universe is nonluminous. Attractive candidates for the composition of this dark cosmic component are still undetected, neutral, heavy particles, which were non-relativistic, or “cold,” when they decoupled from ordinary matter. This paper will review the direct and indirect detection methods of these hypothetical particles, with a major emphasis on the previous approach. In the direct search, sophisticated instruments look for the scattering of dark matter particles off nuclei in ultra-low background, deep underground experiments. In the indirect search, space-based and ground-based observatories aim to detect secondary particles that could originate from annihilations of dark matter candidates in various locations in the Milky Way or in close galaxies. Emphasis is given to the most recent developments and to the status of close-future projects.

After the first large step taken by the pioneers of astrobiology described in the Introduction, a second large step is still ongoing in the development of origin of life studies. It consists of taking the subject from the laboratories of the ‘card-carrying’ organic chemists, where Oparin had introduced it, into the domain of the life, earth and space scientists. We discuss the progress in chemical evolution in the context of the space sciences.

The birth and growth of cosmic structures is a highly nonlinear phenomenon that needs to be investigated with suitable numerical simulations. Themain goal of these simulations is to provide robust predictions, which, once compared to the present and future observations, allows us to constrain the main cosmological parameters. Different techniques have been proposed to follow both the gravitational interaction inside cosmological volumes and the variety of physical processes acting on the baryonic component only. In this chapter, we review the main characteristics of the numerical schemes most commonly used in the literature, discuss their pros and cons, and summarize the results of their comparison.

In the short narrative that follows I introduce two new heroes. Although we begin with Fabricius’s first sighting in 1596, the new pivot point in the drama is the collaboration between Hevelius and Boulliau that began around 1660. As it happens, Learned Europe paid little attention to Mira in the generation after the first scattered sightings of 1596, indeed, nearly 70 years passed before the New Star was given a working identity. Like Columbus discovering America, Fabricius and Holwarda saw different things—for convenience, I call them Fabricius’s Star and Holwarda’s Star. Hevelius’s Historiola (Danzig, 1662) and Boulliau’s Ad astronomos (Paris, 1667) presented a different vision. It made Mira famous. As I shall argue, if Hevelius gave Mira a history, Boulliau gave Mira a future.5 In the end, the New Star not only challenged the ancient cosmos, it became an enduring icon for the New Science, a returning reminder of celestial continuity and cosmic order.

During the second half of the twentieth century, many advances have been made in the field of cosmogenics. New facts and rich general information in physics of space near the Earth, the Moon, and nearby planets Mars, Venus, Mercury, and Jupiter were obtained by means of cosmic apparatus and techniques. Lunar rock samples brought back to the Earth by astronauts and automatic space devices have provided much data on the physical-mechanical properties of those rocks and on that basis a number of new cosmophysical and cosmochemical conclusions have been drawn. Due to new techniques available for studying natural substances, much knowledge was gained on the chemical and isotopic composition and the absolute ages of meteorites, lunar and terrestrial rocks, water, and gases.

The cosmic microwave background provides an image of the Universe 0.4 million years after the Big Bang, when atomic hydrogen formed out of free electrons and protons. One of the primary goals of observational cosmology is to obtain follow-up images of the Universe during the epoch of reionization, hundreds of millions of years later, when cosmic hydrogen was ionized once again by the UV photons emitted from the first galaxies. To achieve this goal, new observatories are being constructed, including low-frequency radio arrays capable of mapping cosmic hydrogen through its redshifted 21 cm emission, as well as imagers of the first galaxies such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and large aperture ground-based telescopes. The construction of these observatories is being motivated by a rapidly growing body of theoretical work. Numerical simulations of reionization are starting to achieve the dynamical range required to resolve galactic sources across the scale of hundreds of comoving Mpc, larger than the biggest ionized regions.

We propose that the first principle of biology is a useful guide in exploring cosmic life forms. Moreover, it determines the basic prerequisites of life in material-independent form. Starting from the Bauer principle (BP), we made explicit its content, and found that the Bauer principle is mediated by virtual interaction (VI) which generates biological couplings (BC) opening up an enormous realm of biologically spontaneous reactions. With the help of biological couplings, it becomes possible that the organism self-initiate systematic investment of work ΔW against the equilibrium, which would otherwise necessarily be approached on the basis of the given initial state and the laws of physics. Therefore, the essence of life can be formulated as the following: the Bauer principle (BP) is manifest in virtual interactions which generate biological couplings leading to investment of work ΔW that generates thermodynamically uphill processes increasing extropy п (Δп > 0); compactly, BP→VI→BC→ ΔW→Δп. We point out that generation of lawful algorithmic complexity is a fundamental characteristic of life (Grandpierre, 2008). Applying the Bauer principle for the Sun, we found that the Sun is a living organism. We are led to recognize a cosmic life form in stellar activity cycles. Then we generalized the Bauer principle and found new kinds of cosmic life forms like the microscopic, intermittent and hidden life forms. We found that the first principle of biology is able to be manifest in the whole universe through virtual interactions. This result led us to recognize a newcosmic life form present in the vacuum that we call universal life.

Given the many recent advances in our understanding of the star formation history (SFH) of the Local Group and other nearby galaxies, and in the evolution of star formation with redshift, we present a new comparison of the comoving space density of the star formation rate as a function of look-back time for the Local and Distant Universe. We update the Local SFH derived from the analysis of resolved stellar populations (``fossil records'') in individual nearby galaxies, based on our own estimations as well as available in the literature. While the preliminary comparison of SFHs is found to be broadly consistent, some discrepancies still remain, including an excess of the Local SFR density in the most recent epoch.

The Igbo Society in Nigeria has a complex relationship between their destiny and the cosmic forces, which is reflected in their various ontological worldview and cultural configuration. The moon, stars and other heavenly bodies have a lot of import on the socio-cultural activities of the Igbo people. This paper seeks to examine how these heavenly bodies influence and even direct various socio-cultural organizations of the people. These are quite evident in the various life cycles and beyond such as at birth, death and even life after. The paper is situated in the realm of cultural astronomy, which will examine the various cosmological beliefs that affect the Igbo cultural organization. This paper is quite necessary since some of the beliefs are being lost and not articulated due to the impact of Christianity and modernization.

The incremental influx of cosmic material on the Earth shows few maxima in the depen- dence on the size of falling meteoroids (Ceplecha 1992). The largest one corresponds to the impact of asteroid-sized bodies—about 3 km in size and mass of about 10 14 kg. The second maximum reaches almost the same value and corresponds to the bodies with masses of 10 4 -10 6 kg (i.e., with diameters about 1-10 m). The information about these meteoroids is scarce. These bodies create the appearance of very bright meteors in the Earth's atmosphere (bolides and superbolides). Sizes of these bodies are one to two orders of magnitude smaller than the sizes of meteoroids, which create asteroid hazards. It is possible to observe bolides and superbolides on a regular basis.

For the purposes of this chapter I have defined Ultra High-Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) as those cosmic particles or photons that have energies above 3 × 10 eV. This limit is chosen as there has been much speculation (and even much belief) that at higher energies the majority of cosmic rays have their origins outside our galaxy. Although there is a lack of firm observational evidence to support such a hypothesis, it is perfectly possible that either of the exotic regions highlighted in the title of this book, ‘Star Forming Regions and Active Galaxies’, could be the sources. Below, after a brief historical review, I will describe the present status of observations of particles above 3× 10 eV and discuss some of the ideas that have been advanced to explain the observations. There is great uncertainty about the properties of the highest energy cosmic rays. The major questions concerning possible anisotropies in the distribution of arrival directions, the mass composition and the long-sought steepening in the energy spectrum near 10eV (the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuz’min effect) remain unanswered: but there has been significant progress and there is promise of a rapid increase in our knowledge over the next 10 years. In this article I will outline how UHECRs are detected and review the observations of the energy spectrum, the mass composition and distribution of arrival directions, all three of which needed to be interpreted in a consistent manner. I will also discuss some of the ideas that have been advanced to explain the origin of the highest energy cosmic rays.

Although the primary goal of ESA's Planck mission is to produce high reso- lution maps of the temperature and polarization anisotropies of the Cosmic Mi- crowave Background (CMB), its high-sensitivity all-sky surveys of extragalactic sources at 9 frequencies in the range 30-860 GHz will constitute a major aspect of its science products. In particular, Planck surveys will provide key informa- tion on several highly interesting radio source populations, such as Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars (FSRQs), BL Lac objects, and, especially, extreme GHz Peaked Spectrum (GPS) sources, thought to correspond to the very earliest phases of the evolution of radio sources. Above 100 GHz, Planck will provide the first all

There is growing evidence for the widespread distribution of microbial material in the Universe. A minuscule (< 10) survival rate of freeze-dried bacteria in space ensures the continual re-cycling of cosmic microbial life in the galaxy. Recyling and amplification occurs within comets during the early phases of the formation of a new planetary system. Evidence that terrestrial life may have come from comets has accumulated over the past decade. The implications of this point of view, which was developed in conjunction with Fred Hoyle since the 1970’s, are now becoming amenable to direct empirical test by studies of cometary material collected in the stratosphere.

Metallicity is intricately related to star formation because metals are injected into the interstellar medium by stellar mass-loss processes. Theory suggests that metallicity changes less rapidly than star-formation rate as a function of redshift, but until now, there has been no solid observational foundation for the cosmic metallicity history of star-forming galaxies. We present the first results of our new investigation into the metallicity history of star-forming (emissionline) galaxies between redshifts 0 < z < 3. This analysis provides an initial insight into the evolution of metallicity for star-forming galaxies spanning the redshift range 0 < z < 3.

Re-examination of the properties of distant galaxies leads to the evidence that most present-day spirals have built up half of their stellar masses during the last 8 Gyr, mostly during several intense phases of star formation during which they took the appearance of luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs). Distant galaxy morphologies encompass all of the expected stages of galaxy merging, central core formation and disk growth, while their cores are much bluer than those of present-day bulges. We have tested a spiral rebuilding scenario, for which 75+/-25% of spirals have experienced their last major merger event less than 8 Gyr ago. It accounts for the simultaneous decreases, during that period, of the cosmic star formation density, of the merger rate, of the number densities of LIRGs and of compact galaxies, while the densities of ellipticals and large spirals are essentially unaffected.

The spectrum of the hard X-ray background records the history of accretion processes integrated over the cosmic time. Several pieces of observational and theoretical evidence indicate that a significant fraction of the energy density is obscured by large columns of gas and dust. The absorbing matter is often very thick, with column densities exceeding N_H > 1.5 10^24 cm-2, the value corresponding to unity optical depth for Compton scattering. These sources are called ``Compton thick'' and appear to be very numerous, at least in the nearby universe. Although Compton thick Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are thought to provide an important contribution to the overall cosmic energy budget, their space density and cosmological evolution are poorly known. The properties of Compton thick AGN are reviewed here, with particular emphasis on their contributions to the extragalactic background light in the hard X-ray and infrared bands.

In the conventional view the Universe began in a hot Big Bang some 15 billions years ago, and has been expanding ever since. The dark age of the Universe is pointed out as the period between the hydrogen recombination epoch and the horizon of current astrophysical observations. Atvery early stage in the expansion, when the temperature of the Universe was still 109-1010 K, collisions between subatomic particles created hydrogen and helium nuclei with very minor traces of deuterium and lithium nuclei. The chemistry of the early Universe is the chemistry of these light elements. This chemistry (Standard Big Bang Chemistry or SBBC) has been source of large studies. One of the most important consequences, of the existence of a significant abundance of molecules, is the crucial role played in the dynamical evolution of the first collapsing structures. The arrow of time in the cosmic history describes the progression from simplicity to complexity, because the present Universe is clumpy and complicated unlike the homogeneous early Universe. Thus it is crucial to know the nature of the constituents, in order to understand the conditions of the formation of the first bound objects. In this paper we analyse the chemical history of this Dark Age and the consequences on the birth of the first astrophysical objects. Thus in section 2 we describe the chemical evolution of the Universe, then in section 3 we analyze the implications on the formation of first stars. In section 4 some possible outlooks are pointed out.

During the last few years, a number of exceptional core-collapse supernovae (SNe) have been discovered. Their kinetic energy of the explosions are larger by more than an order of magnitude than the typical values for this type of SNe, so that these SNe have been called `Hypernovae'. We first describe how the basic properties of hypernovae can be derived from observations and modeling. These hypernovae seem to come from rather massive stars, thus forming black holes. On the other hand, there are some examples of massive SNe with only a small kinetic energy. We suggest that stars with non-rotating black holes are likely to collapse "quietly" ejecting a small amount of heavy elements (Faint supernovae). In contrast, stars with rotating black holes are likely to give rise to very energetic supernovae (Hypernovae). We present distinct nucleosynthesis features of these two types of "black-hole-forming" supernovae. Hypernova nucleosynthesis is characterized by larger abundance ratios (Zn,Co,V,Ti)/Fe and smaller (Mn,Cr)/Fe. Nucleosynthesis in Faint supernovae is characterized by a large amount of fall-back. We show that the abundance pattern of the most Fe deficient star, HE0107-5240, and other extremely metal-poor carbon-rich stars are in good accord with those of black-hole-forming supernovae, but not pair-instability supernovae. This suggests that black-hole-forming supernovae made important contributions to the early Galactic (and cosmic) chemical evolution.

Our civilization consumes more and more energy as it progresses. Consider that the total ouput from the Sun is about 4 x 1026 W, of which the illuminated Earth intercepts a small fraction (10-9). With our accelerated energy consumption rate, we would soon use that whole illuminated Earth energy. Given the cosmic timescale (see G. V. Coyne in this proceedings), there is plenty of room for other civilizations to have been born well before ours. These more advanced civilizations would require unthinkable amounts of energy. Freeman (1960) proposed that advanced civilizations would have the means to use all the energy of their parent stars by building A.U. size shells around them. Using the laws of thermodynamics he predicted how these “Dyson spheres” could be observed, even without knowing the nature of these objects. Whole or partial Dyson spheres would dim the original stellar light, and radiate in the IR (at about 10 μm).

This chapter presents a review of some fundamental concepts in gamma-ray astrophysics. Gamma-ray production and absorption mechanisms are discussed in some detail, as well as other relevant physical processes in cosmic gamma-ray sources.

In the coming years, a number of projects will start intensive supernovaesearches resulting in an increase of the current statistics by a factor of 10. At low redshift, the Nearby Supernova Factory will detect and follow spectrophotometricly ∼ 400 of SNe Ia with a redshift at z ∼ 0.05, and improve our understanding of the intrinsic properties of SNe Ia. At high redshift, the large imager Megacam at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope running in a survey mode, will make it possible to detect and follow a large amount of high redshift supernovae. Using Megacam during 5 years ∼ 1000 Type Ia SNe will be detected, at z ranging from 0.3 to 1.2, and ∼ 700 will be used for measuring the cosmological parameters via the Hubble diagram. They will provide a measurement of the cosmic equation of state parameter w. A first test run search was done last spring at the CFHT, using the current imager: the `CFH 12k'. Detection procedure and preliminary results are presented in this article.

We discuss the origin of the cosmic abundances of the chemical elements and in particular of biogenic elements such as H, C, N, O and Fe. Interesting enough, many of these elements are among the most abundant in the Universe.

Antarctica provides a unique environment for astronomers to practice their trade. The cold, dry and stable air found above the high Antarctic plateau, as well as the pure ice below, offers new opportunities for the conduct of observational astronomy across both the photon and the particle spectrum. The summits of the Antarctic plateau provide the best seeing conditions, the darkest skies and the most transparent atmosphere of any earth-based observing site. Astronomical activities are now underway at four plateau sites: the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, Concordia Station at Dome C, Kunlun Station at Dome A and Fuji Station at Dome F, in addition to long duration ballooning from the coastal station of McMurdo, at stations run by the USA, France/Italy, China, Japan and the USA, respectively. The astronomy conducted from Antarctica includes optical, infrared, terahertz and sub-millimetre astronomy, measurements of cosmic microwave background anisotropies, solar astronomy, as well as high energy astrophysics involving the measurement of cosmic rays, gamma rays and neutrinos. Antarctica is also the richest source of meteorites on our planet. An extensive range of site testing measurements have been made over the high plateau sites. In this article, we summarise the facets of Antarctica that are driving developments in astronomy there, and review the results of the site testing experiments undertaken to quantify those characteristics of the Antarctic plateau relevant for astronomical observation. We also outline the historical development of the astronomy on the continent, and then review the principal scientific results to have emerged over the past three decades of activity in the discipline. These range from determination of the dominant frequencies of the 5 min solar oscillation in 1979 to the highest angular scale measurements yet made of the power spectrum of the CMBR anisotropies in 2010. They span through infrared views of the galactic ecology in star formation complexes in 1999, the first clear demonstration that the Universe was flat in 2000, the first detection of polarization in the CMBR in 2002, the mapping of the warm molecular gas across the ~ 300 pc extent of the Central Molecular Zone of our Galaxy in 2003, the measurement of cosmic neutrinos in 2005, and imaging of the thermal Sunyaev Zel’dovich effect in galaxy clusters in 2008. This review also discusses how science is conducted in Antarctica, and in particular the difficulties, as well as the advantages, faced by astronomers seeking to bring their experiments there. It also reviews some of the political issues that will be encountered, both at national and international level. Finally, the review discusses where Antarctic astronomy may be heading in the coming decade, in particular plans for infrared and terahertz astronomy, including the new facilities being considered for these wavebands at the high plateau stations.

From the contents:Preface.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Fundamentals of gamma-ray astrophysics.- 3. Galactic gamma-ray sources.- 4. Extragalactic gamma-ray sources.- 5. Non-thermal emission from early-type binaries.- 6. Gamma-ray emission from supernova remnants.- 7. Gamma-ray pulsars.- 8. Theories of gamma-ray emission from pulsars.- 9. High-energy emission from microquasars.- 10. Gamma-ray bursts.- 11. Clusters of galaxies at high-energy gamma-rays.- 12. Diffuse gamma-rays.- 13. Multifrequency strategies for the identification of gamma-ray sources.- 14. Future ground-based TeV gamma-ray telescopes.- 15. GLAST: Understanding the high-energy gamma-ray sky.- Author Index.- Object Index.

Since chemical complexity and then life itself came about as part of the evolutionary history of the cosmos, it would be helpful to have an overview of that history. After an introduction to a few key concepts, several relevant topics in modern cosmology are reviewed. These include: the Hubble Law and the age of the universe; large scale structuring; galaxy formation and evolution; and cosmic chemistry.

MAGIC is a new generation Cerenkov telescope which aims to detect cosmic γ-rays at energies as low as 10 – 30 GeV, closing the gap between satellites and ground-based γ-ray telescopes. In this paper we summarize the technical innovations, physics goals, and the status of the MAGIC telescope.

The paper reviews our knowledge about cosmic silicates obtained from a combination of recent infrared observations and dedicated laboratory experiments. The formation and properties of crystalline silicates and their mineralogy will be discussed.

The proposal that cometary dust particles play a significant role in the emergence and evolution of both life and disease on suitable planets was first made some 25 years ago by Hoyle and Wickramasinghe. Fundamental to this proposal was a process of punctuated seeding by particular (bio)chemical species believed to originate naturally and predominantly in larger comets, say those with diameters greater than about 100 kilometres. Rather less well known is a parallel proposal likewise favoured by Hoyle that a particular giant comet, the most recent to settle in cis-Jovian space, accounting for the latest significant phase of evolution on Earth, also had a significant part to play in the cultivation by homo sapiens of its civilization and culture. Such proposals may be seen by many as examples of excessively lateral thinking but they by no means lack independent support and have important implications for the otherwise uncertain origin of the latest ice-age (basic to climatology) and for the otherwise uncertain generation of early calendars (basic to the management of society). Aspects of these proposals are considered here in relation to a much respected supposedly Chaldean calendar probably passed down by the dynastic Isins (also the Essenes?) which evidently bears witness to known early mathematical and astronomical skills but which largely ceased to be available to subsequent scholarship beyond the Early Christians (ca. 100 CE) pending its (recent) recovery through the medium of Dead Sea Scrolls.

We present here a new method using interferometric measurements of quasars, that allows the determination of direct geometrical distances on cosmic scales. Quasar Broad Emission Line Regions sizes provide a ‘meter rule’ with which to measure the metric of the Universe. This method is less dependent of model assumptions, and even of variations in the fundamental constants (other than c). We discuss the spectral and spatial requirements on the VLTI observations needed to carry out these measurements.

It is proposed that genes coding for Aib-polypeptides arose early on in the K/T transition, presumed from the Earth’s accretion of interplanetary (comet) dust. Aib-fungi flourished because of the evolutionary advantage of novel antibiotics. The stress on Cretaceous biology led directly and indirectly to mass species extinctions, including many dinosaur species, in the epoch preceding the Chicxulub impact.

The lecture is devoted to the comparison of a few models of cosmic recombination kinetics with recent CMB anisotropy data and to corresponding predictions for the upcoming PLANCK mission. The influence of additional sources of ionized photons at the epoch of hydrogen recombination may restrict our possibility to estimate the density of baryonic fraction of matter when using PLANCK data. This new source of degeneracy of the cosmological parameters which can be estimated from the CMB anisotropy data can mimic the distortion of the CMB power spectrum for different models of baryonic matter. I would like to point out that realistic values of the cosmological parameters can not be obtained without PLANCK polarization data.

Our extremely deep survey for extragalactic HI (HIDEEP) finds no intergalactic gas clouds, and no galaxies with HI at inferred global column-densities below 10^20 cm^-2 when we could have detected such objects down to a completeness limit of 4 x 10^18 cm^-2. We speculate that low surface-density hydrogen is either ionised or locked up in ``frozen discs'', i.e. structures where the local Ly-alpha is insufficient to excite the 21-cm transition to a spin-temperature above the cosmic background. Such ``frozen discs'' might be responsible for many QSOALSs.

After recalling the current understanding of the formation of the large scale structures of the Universe which the distribution of galaxies revealed, I review what the imprint on the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) of the seeds of these structures can tell us, has already told us, and what it should tell us within the next five years.

The use of type Ia Supernovae (SNe) as distance indicators lead two groups to the surprising conclusion that the expansion of the Universe is accelerated [1, 2]. This result relies on the assumption that the properties of SN Ia in distant galaxies are the same as in the local Universe, in particular that the SN Ia absolute magnitude does not change with cosmic age. Although there are empirical evidences to support this assumption, it must be stressed that the path leading to SN Ia explosion is poorly known and in particular the progenitor systems have not yet been identified. This of course leaves room for unknown evolutionary effects.

The Andromeda Galaxy (M31), with its large and diverse stellar population and chemical history and galactic structure similar to that of the Milky Way, is potentially a crucial calibrator for the Cosmic Distance Scale and thus for determining the age and evolution of the Universe. We have demonstrated in our work on the LMC distance that double-line eclipsing binaries can serve as excellent “standard candles”. Also, the resulting accurate fundamental properties (M, R, T eff) of the two binary components yield an empirical determination of the mass-luminosity law and permit critical tests of stellar structure and evolution models.

There are many observations that imply the existence of magnetic fields in the Universe. Recent observations place an upper bound on the strength of a magnetic field in interstellar and intergalactic space [222, 378] , but are not conclusive as to whether such a cosmic field exists [346]. Although cosmologists have investigated the possible existence of a homogeneous intergalactic magnetic field of primordial origin both from a theoretical and an observational point of view for many years, research on cosmological magnetic fields has been rather marginal despite their potential importance. The reasons could be the perceived weakness of the field effects or the lack, as yet, of a consistent theory explaining the origin of cosmic magnetism. However, this situation has changed considerably recently (cf. [161]).