Context: .During the past years photometric surveys, later complemented by follow-up radial-velocity measurements, have revealed the presence of several new extra-solar transiting planets, in very short-period orbits. Many of the host stars are extremely faint (V˜16), making high-precision spectroscopic measurements challenging. Aims: .We used the

NGC 4649 (M60) is one of a handful of giant Virgo ellipticals. We have obtained Gemini/GMOS (Gemini North Multi-Object Spectrograph) spectra for 38 globular clusters (GCs) associated with this galaxy. Applying the multi-index χ2 minimization technique of Proctor and Sansom with the single stellar population models of Thomas, Maraston and Korn, we

In order to understand the origin and evolution of radio galaxies, searches for the youngest such sources have been conducted. Compact symmetric objects (CSOs)/medium symmetric objects (MSOs) are thought to be the earliest stages of radio sources, with possible ages of

We present deep echelle spectrophotometry of the Galactic HII regions M16, M20 and NGC 3603. The data have been taken with the Very Large Telescope Ultraviolet-Visual Echelle Spectrograph in the 3100-10400 Å range. We have detected more than 200 emission lines in each region. Physical conditions have been derived using different continuum and line

Aims.The present paper focuses on the evolution of hydrogen-deficient white dwarfs with the aim of exploring the consequences of different initial envelope structures on the carbon abundances expected in helium-rich, carbon-contaminated DQ white dwarfs. In particular, the evolutionary link between the DQs with low detected carbon abundances and the

The MAGIC collaboration has studied the high-frequency-peaked BL Lac object 1ES 1218+30.4, at a redshift z=0.182, using the MAGIC imaging air Cerenkov telescope located on the Canary Island of La Palma. A gamma-ray signal was observed with 6.4 σ significance. The differential energy spectrum for an energy threshold of 120 GeV can be fitted by a