New 21cm H I observations made with the Green Bank Telescope show that the high-velocity cloud known as Smith's Cloud has a striking cometary appearance and many indications of interaction with the Galactic ISM. The velocities of interaction give a kinematic distance of 12.4 ± 1.3 kpc, consistent with the distance derived from other methods. The Cloud is > 3 × 1 kpc in size and its tip at (ℓ, b) ≈ 39 • − 13 • is 7.6 kpc from the Galactic center and 2.9 kpc below the Galactic plane. It has > 10 6 M ⊙ in H I. Its leading section has a total space velocity near 300 km s −1 , is moving toward the Galactic plane with a velocity of 73 ± 26 km s −1 , and is shedding material to the Galaxy. In the absence of drag the Cloud will cross the plane in about 27 Myr. Smith's Cloud may be an example of the accretion of gas by the Milky Way needed to explain certain persistant anomalies in Galactic chemical evolution.

We present a targeted search for narrow-band (< 5 Hz) drifting sinusoidal radio emission from 86 stars in the Kepler field hosting confirmed or candidate exoplanets. Radio emission less than 5 Hz in spectral extent is currently known to only arise from artificial sources. The stars searched were chosen based on the properties of their putative exoplanets, including stars hosting candidates with 380 K > T eq > 230 K, stars with 5 or more detected candidates or stars with a super-Earth (R p < 3 R ⊕ ) in a > 50 day orbit. Baseband voltage data across the entire band between 1.1 and 1.9 GHz were recorded at the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope between Feb-Apr 2011 and subsequently searched offline. No signals of extraterrestrial origin were found. We estimate that fewer than ∼1% of transiting exoplanet systems host technological civilizations that are radio loud in narrow-band emission between 1−2 GHz at an equivalent isotropically radiated power (EIRP) of ∼ 1.5 × 10 21 erg s −1 , approximately eight times the peak EIRP of the Arecibo Planetary Radar, and we limit the the number of 1−2 GHz narrow-band-radio-loud Kardashev type II civilizations in the Milky Way to be < 10 −6 M −1 . Here we describe our observations, data reduction procedures and results.

We have detected the four 18 cm OH lines from the z approximaetely 0.765 gravitational lens toward PMN J0134-0931. The 1612 and 1720 MHz lines are in conjugate absorption and emission, providing a laboratory to test the evolution of fundamental constants over a large lookback time. We compare the HI and OH main line absorption redshifts of the different components in the z approximately 0.765 absorber and the z approximately 0.685 lens toward B0218 + 357 to place stringent constraints on changes in F triple-bond g(p)[alpha(2)/mu](1.57). We obtain [DeltaF/F] = (0.44 +/- 0.36(stat) +/- 1.0(sys)t) x 10(-5), consistent with no evolution over the redshift range 0 < z < or = 0.7. The measurements have a 2sigma sensitivity of [Deltaalpha/alpha] < 6.7 x 10(-6) or [Deltamu/mu] < 1.4 x 10(-5) to fractional changes in alpha and mu over a period of approximately 6.5 G yr, half the age of the Universe. These are among the most sensitive constraints on changes in mu.

We have observed a 3 • × 3 • area centered on the M81/M82 group of galaxies using the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in a search for analogs to the High Velocity Clouds (HVCs) of neutral hydrogen found around our galaxy. The velocity range from -605 to -85 km s −1 and 25 to 1970 km s −1 was searched for H i clouds. Over the inner 2 • × 2 • the 7σ detection threshold was 9.6 × 10 5 M . We detect 5 previously unknown H i clouds associated with the group, as well as numerous associated filamentary H i structures, all lying in the range −105 ≤ V helio ≤ +280 km s −1 . From the small angular distance of the clouds to group members, and the small velocity difference between group members and clouds, we conclude that the clouds are most likely relics of ongoing interactions between galaxies in the group.

We observe significant dust-correlated emission outside of H II regions in the Green Bank Galactic Plane Survey (−4 < b < 4 • ) at 8. 35 and 14.35 GHz. The rising spectral slope rules out synchrotron and free-free emission as majority constituents at 14 GHz, and the amplitude is at least 500 times higher than expected thermal dust emission. When combined with the Rhodes (2.326 GHz), and WMAP (23-94 GHz) data it is possible to fit dust-correlated emission at 2.3−94 GHz with only soft synchrotron, free-free, thermal dust, and an additional dust-correlated component similar to Draine & Lazarian spinning dust. The rising component generally dominates free-free and synchrotron for ν 14 GHz and is overwhelmed by thermal dust at ν 60 GHz. The current data fulfill most of the criteria laid out by Finkbeiner et al. (2002) for detection of spinning dust.