We review the progress of ESO/WFI Imaging and VLT/FLAMES spectroscopy of large numbers of individual stars in nearby dwarf spheroidal galaxies by the Dwarf galaxy Abundances and Radial-velocities Team (DART). These observations have allowed us to show that neither the kinematics nor the abundances nor the spatial distributions are easy to explain

Aims.Our aim in this paper is to present an explanatory scenario for the formation of the observed relatively metal rich globular clusters associated with the thick disc of the Galaxy, distinct from the mode of formation of the lower metallicity halo clusters.Methods.The observations to be accounted for here are the two peaks in the metallicity

Point sources detections in J, H and K obtained along the TCS-CAIN survey in the 530 recorded Galactic fields. Individual magnitudes for each point source in the three bands, their coordinates (both equatorial and galactic ones), and cross-matching with 2MASS sources is provided in each catalogue file. Each file corresponds to a single field

We report on a search for gravitational waves from binary black hole inspirals in the data from the second science run of the LIGO interferometers. The search focused on binary systems with component masses between 3 and 20M&sun;. Optimally oriented binaries with distances up to 1 Mpc could be detected with efficiency of at least 90%. We found no

We describe improved modelling of the emission by dust in a toroidal-like structure heated by a central illuminating source within active galactic nuclei (AGNs). We have chosen a simple but realistic torus geometry, a flared disc, and a dust grain distribution function including a full range of grain sizes. The optical depth within the torus is

The paradox of apparent optical associations of galaxies with very different redshifts, the so-called anomalous redshift problem, is around 35 years old, but is still without a clear solution and is surprisingly ignored by most of the astronomical community. Statistical correlations among the positions of these galaxies have been pointed out by