Exoplanets have sparked interest in extremely high signal-to-noise ratio spectroscopic observations of very bright stars, in a regime where flux calibrators, in particular DA white dwarfs, are not available. We argue that A-type stars offer a useful alternative and reliable space-based spectrophotometry is now available for a number of bright ones

We present an analysis of optical and infrared spectra of the recurrent nova RS Oph obtained during between 2006 and 2009. The best fit to the optical spectrum for 2006 September 28 gives Teff = 3900 K for log g = 2.0, while for log g = 0.0 we find Teff = 4700 K, and a comparison with template stellar spectra provides Teff ˜ 4500 K. The observed

The top quark pair production cross section is measured for the first time in proton-proton collisions at √{s }=13 TeV by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC, using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 43 pb-1 . The measurement is performed by analyzing events with at least one electron and one muon of opposite charge, and at least two

The charge asymmetry in the production of top quark and antiquark pairs is measured in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. The data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.6 fb-1 , were collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. Events with a single isolated electron or muon, and four or more jets, at least one

We present spectroscopic and photometric data of the Type Ibn supernova (SN) 2014av, discovered by the Xingming Observatory Sky Survey. Stringent pre-discovery detection limits indicate that the object was detected for the first time about 4 d after the explosion. A prompt follow-up campaign arranged by amateur astronomers allowed us to monitor the

The long-term spatial and temporal variation of aurora borealis events from 1600 to the present were studied using catalogues and other records of these phenomena. Geographic and geomagnetic coordinates were assigned to approximately 45 000 auroral events with more than 160 000 observations. They were analysed separately for three large-scale areas