Numerical simulations of galaxy formation predict direct gas accretion from the cosmic web to be the main mode of disk galaxy formation. However, observational evidence of the process are so far scarce and indirect. This write up should be regarded as a progress report listing several of our works which, in the long term, aim at finding evidence

Aims: More than 30 years after its discovery, the thick disc of the Milky Way is not fully explored. We examine the shape of the thick disc in order to gain insight into the process of its formation. Methods: The shape of the thick disc is studied in detail using photometric data at high and intermediate latitudes from SDSS and 2MASS surveys. We

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We present deep echelle spectrophotometry of the brightest emission-line knots of the star-forming galaxies He 2-10, Mrk 1271, NGC 3125, NGC 5408, POX 4, SDSS J1253-0312, Tol 1457-262, Tol 1924-416 and the H II region Hubble V in the Local Group dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 6822. The data have been taken with the Very Large Telescope Ultraviolet

We describe and discuss the selection procedure and statistical properties of the galaxy sample used by the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey, a public legacy survey of 600 galaxies using integral field spectroscopy. The CALIFA "mother sample" was selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) DR7 photometric catalogue to

Aims: The aim of the project is to improve our knowledge on the multiplicity of planet-host stars at wide physical separations. Methods: We cross-matched approximately 6200 square degree area of the southern sky imaged by the Visible Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) Hemisphere Survey (VHS) with the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS)