The optical transient of the faint gamma-ray burst GRB 990308 was detected by the QUEST camera on the Venezuelan 1 m Schmidt telescope starting 3.28 hr after the burst. Our photometry gives V=18.32+/-0.07, R=18.14+/-0.06, B=18.65+/-0.23, and R=18.22+/-0.05 for times ranging from 3.28 to 3.47 hr after the burst. The colors correspond to a spectral

During a 50 ks monitoring observation of the Galactic bulge performed in September 1999 by the Wide Field Cameras on board the BeppoSAX satellite, an X-ray burst was detected from a sky position ~ 3degr off the Galactic centre. No previously known X-ray sources are located within the position error circle of the observed burst. The new burster, SAX

The MAGIC Collaboration reports the detection of the blazar S5 0716+714 (z = 0.31 ± 0.08) in very high energy gamma rays. The observations were performed in 2007 November and in 2008 April, and were triggered by the Kungliga Vetenskapliga Akademi telescope due to the high optical state of the object. An overall significance of the signal accounts

We present the discovery by optical and near-infrared imaging of an extremely red, low-luminosity population of isolated objects in the young, nearby stellar cluster around the multiple, massive star σ Orionis. The proximity (352 parsecs), youth (1 million to 5 million years), and low internal extinction make this cluster an ideal site to explore

Clusters of galaxies produce negative features at wavelengths λ > 1.25 mm in cosmic microwave background (CMB) maps by means of the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) effect, while point radio sources produce positive peaks. This fact implies that a distribution of unresolved SZ clusters could be detected using the negative asymmetry introduced in the

Context. Transiting super-Earths orbiting bright stars in short orbital periods are interesting targets for the study of planetary atmospheres. Aims: While selecting super-Earths suitable for further characterisation from the ground from a list of confirmed and validated exoplanets detected by K2, we found some suspicious cases that led to us