Preface: Stars and interstellar medium

This issue presents proceedings of the "Stars and Interstellar Medium" section of the AllRussian Astronomical Conference VAK-2017. Sixteen papers(selected from about 70 talks) cover different problems related to stars, pulsars, interstellar gas and dust, and star formation. The preface briefly reviews these papers.     

Influence of the Atmospheric Tides on the Earth Rotation

Spectral analysis of the components of the relative atmospheric angular momentum vector is performed based on the series of these components for the 6 h intervals within the period of 1958–2000. These series have been computed in the Subbureau of the Atmospheric Angular Momentum of the International Earth Rotation Service using the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis of atmospheric observations. The basic harmonics of diurnal tides are determined. New results on the fortnight's and week's duration oscillations of the equatorial components of the atmospheric angular momentum are obtained. The zonal tides transformation mechanisms in the atmosphere are discussed. It is shown that the main mechanism of the zonal tides effect on the atmospheric variability is the amplitude modulation of daily oscillations of the relative atmospheric angular momentum. The effects of the atmospheric tides on the Earth rotation are discussed.     

Structure and origin of the cygnus superbubble

This paper summarizes and analyzes the results of radio optical, infrared, and X-ray observations of a large sector of the sky in the constellation Cygnus (19^h20^m-22^h, =30–50°;l ^II=65–90°, |b ^II|10°). This region is associated with an extended X-ray source referred to as the Cygnus superbubble. About a quarter of the superbubble region is occupied by the extensively investigated multicomponent thermal radio source Cyg X. The region contains eight OB-associations which, when projected on the sky, duplicate the outline of the X-ray superbubble. These associations contains 110 stars of high luminosity (about 40 Wolf-Rayet and Of stars). The observations suggest that the X-ray superbubble is not a single object. Between 50 and 75% of its X-ray emission can be ascribed to discrete sources, the rest being probably due to regions of coronal gas about 100 pc in diameter, created by stellar winds and, possibly, supernova explosions in individual associations. The objects that produce the X-ray and optical radiation of the presumed superbubble are located at distances from 0.5 to 2.5 kpc from the Sun in the Carina-Cygnus spiral arm. The eastern portion of the region presumed superbubble contains the associations Cyg OB7 and Cyg OB4 and is generally less than 1 kpc distant, while the western portion contains the associations Cyg OB1, 2, 3, 8, and 9 and is 1 to 2 kpc distant.     

Gated communities of the Moscow green belt: newly segregated landscapes and the suburban Russian environment

The transition from the Soviet to the post-Soviet period in and near Moscow manifested itself in increasing production of segregated space both in the urban core and suburban areas outside of the beltway to accommodate the preferences of the new Russian business and governmental elite. This paper focuses on the residential single-family housing inside old and new settlements, which are frequently gated. Approximately 260 of such suburban communities have been developed within 30 km of the beltway during the past few years, of which a majority have some form of exclusion mechanism in place, typically tall solid fences, gates, closed-circuit video surveillance and guarded entry checkpoints. The difference in exclusivity varies from the most exclusive older communities inside Moscow Serebryany Bor enclave and Rublevskoe highway mansions to less exclusive new developments along Novorizkhskoe and Dmitrovskoe highways. Despite high rates of construction, based on sociological surveys in 2003, only about 11% of Russia’s upper class claimed to live in such new “cottages,” with the rest owning condos and luxury apartments in the inner city or older detached homes in villages and small towns. Therefore, not all the needs have been accommodated and more development is certain to take place. The environmental impact of such developments is profound. Based on preliminary LANDSAT image analysis, almost 22% of suburban “green belt” forested land within 30 km zone has been converted to new construction from 1991 to 2001. New construction is now focusing on the remaining fragments of natural vegetation, which will likely lower air quality and water quality available for the city. Ironically, the new developments advertise themselves as “clean and green” with massive investments in unnatural landscaping (seeded lawns, exotic shrubs, river and lake shore “improvements”). This investment highlights the well-known paradox of development in which people move out of town to live near nature, while destroying the wild nature they come to enjoy. “We left city for the weekend It was raining, saw no stars There were fences everywhere Our chiefs behind the bars.” Gennady Shpalikov     

New structural and petrologic data on Mesozoic schists in the Rhodope (Bulgaria): geodynamic implications

Structural analysis of low-grade rocks highlights the allochthonous character of Mesozoic schists in southeastern Rhodope, Bulgaria. The deformation can be related to the Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous thrusting and Tertiary detachment faulting. Petrologic and geochemical data show a volcanic arc origin of the greenschists and basaltic rocks. These results are interpreted as representing an island arc-accretionary complex related to the southward subduction of the Meliata–Maliac Ocean under the supra-subduction back-arc Vardar ocean/island arc system. This arc-trench system collided with the Rhodope in Late Jurassic times. To cite this article: N.G. Bonev, G.M. Stampfli, C. R. Geoscience 335 (2003).     

Arsenic mobility in alteration products of sulfide-rich, arsenopyrite-bearing mine wastes, Snow Lake, Manitoba, Canada

The Arsenopyrite Residue Stockpile (ARS) in Snow Lake, Manitoba contains approximately 250,000 tons of cyanide treated, refractory arsenopyrite ore concentrate. The residue was deposited between 1950 and 1959 in an open waste rock impoundment, and remained exposed until 2000, when the pile was capped with layers of waste rock and clay. During the time when the ARS was exposed to the atmosphere, arsenopyrite, pyrrhotite, pyrite and chalcopyrite were oxidized producing scorodite, jarosite and two generations of amorphous Fe sulfo-arsenates (AISA). These secondary phases attenuated some of the As released to pore water during oxidation in the upper layers of the ARS. The imposition of the cap prevented further oxidation. The secondary As minerals are not stable in the reduced environment that currently dominates the pile. Therefore, As currently is being released into the groundwater. Water in an adjacent monitoring well has concentrations of >20 mg/L total As with relative predominance of As(III).     

New variable stars from the photographic archive: semi-automated discoveries,attempts at automatic classification and the new field 104 Her

Using 172 plates taken with the 40-cm astrograph of the Sternberg Astronomical Institute(Lomonosov Moscow University) in 1976–1994 and digitized with a resolution of 2400 dpi, we discovered and studied 275 new variable stars. We present the list of our new variables with all necessary information concerning their brightness variations. As in our earlier studies, the new discoveries show a rather large number of high-amplitude Delta Scuti variables, predicting that many stars of this type remain not detected in the whole sky. We also performed automated classification of the newly discovered variable stars based on the Random Forest algorithm. The results of the automated classification were compared to traditional classification and showed that automated classification was possible even with noisy photographic data. However, further improvement of automated techniques is needed, which is especially important when considering the very large numbers of new discoveries expected from all-sky surveys.     

Preface: Modern studies of variable stars

In this Mini-Volume, seven papers written on the basis of talks selected from those presented at the scientific conference "Modern studies of variable stars," commemorating Prof. M. A. Svechnikov(1933–2011), are published. The conference covered a variety of variable-star topics; the papers in this Mini-Volume deal with close, mainly eclipsing, binaries, Herbig Be stars and stellar molecular masers, with an accent on stellar catalogs of different kinds. We briefly review the contents of these papers.     

Stone Age settlement and Holocene shore displacement in the Narva‐Luga Klint Bay area,eastern Gulf of Finland

Based on geological and archaeological proxies from NW Russia and NE Estonia and on GIS‐based modelling, shore displacement during the Stone Age in the Narva‐Luga Klint Bay area in the eastern Gulf of Finland was reconstructed. The reconstructed shore displacement curve displays three regressive phases in the Baltic Sea history, interrupted by the rapid Ancylus Lake and Litorina Sea transgressions c. 10.9–10.2 cal. ka BP and c. 8.5–7.3 cal. ka BP, respectively. During the Ancylus transgression the lake level rose 9 m at an average rate of about 13 mm per year, while during the Litorina transgression the sea level rose 8 m at an average rate of about 7 mm per year. The results show that the highest shoreline of Ancylus Lake at an altitude of 8–17 m a.s.l. was formed c. 10.2 cal. ka BP and that of the Litorina Sea at an altitude of 6–14 m a.s.l., c. 7.3 cal. ka BP. The oldest traces of human activity dated to 8.5–7.9 cal. ka BP are associated with the palaeo‐Narva River in the period of low water level in the Baltic basin at the beginning of the Litorina Sea transgression. The coastal settlement associated with the Litorina Sea lagoon, presently represented by 33 Stone Age sites, developed in the area c. 7.1 cal. ka BP and existed there for more than 2000 years. Transformation from the coastal settlement back to the river settlement indicates a change from a fishing‐and‐hunting economy to farming and animal husbandry c. 4.4 cal. ka BP, coinciding with the time of the overgrowing of the lagoon in the Narva‐Luga Klint Bay area.