We present the first chemical composition study of two unevolved stars in the globular cluster NGC 2808, obtained with the X-shooter spectrograph at VLT. NGC 2808 shows three discrete, well-separated main sequences. The most accepted explanation for this phenomenon is that their stars have different helium contents. We observed one star on the

VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) is a public ESO near-IR variability survey aimed at scanning the Milky Way Bulge and an adjacent section of the mid-plane. VVV observations started in October 2009 during ESO science verification. Regular observations for the first year of the survey have been conducted since February 2010 and will cover a

We present a search for Herschel-PACS counterparts of dust-obscured, high-redshift objects previously selected at submillimeter and millimeter wavelengths in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey North field. We detect 22 of 56 submillimeter galaxies (SMGs, 39%) with a signal-to-noise ratio of >=3 at 100 μm down to 3.0 mJy, and/or at 160 μm

Context. Spectropolarimetry at high spatial and spectral resolution is a basic tool to characterize the magnetic properties of the solar atmosphere. Aims: We introduce the KIS/IAA Visible Imaging Polarimeter (VIP), a new post-focus instrument that upgrades the TESOS spectrometer at the German Vacuum Tower Telescope (VTT) into a full vector

We report the discovery by the CoRoT satellite of a new transiting giant planet in a 2.83 days orbit about a V = 15.5 solar analog star (M_* = 1.08 ± 0.08 M_&sun;, R_* = 1.1 ± 0.1 R_&sun;, Teff = 5675 ± 80 K). This new planet, CoRoT-12b, has a mass of 0.92 ± 0.07 MJup and a radius of 1.44 ± 0.13 RJup. Its low density can be explained by standard

Aims: We report the discovery of CoRoT-8b, a dense small Saturn-class exoplanet that orbits a K1 dwarf in 6.2 days, and we derive its orbital parameters, mass, and radius. Methods: We analyzed two complementary data sets: the photometric transit curve of CoRoT-8b as measured by CoRoT and the radial velocity curve of CoRoT-8 as measured by the HARPS