We have obtained linear polarization measurements of stars along the western side of the IRAS Vela Shell toward HD 62542. From 16 CCD fields distributed along the ionization front (I-front) we have built a catalog of 856 objects with polarization signal-to-noise ratio larger than 10. We detect very significant levels of polarization and hence an

Context: Ultra-cool dwarfs of the L spectral type (T_eff = 1400-2200 K) are known to have dusty atmospheres. Asymmetries of the dwarf surface may arise from rotationally-induced flattening and dust-cloud coverage, and may result in non-zero linear polarisation through dust scattering. Aims: We aim to study the heterogeneity of ultra-cool dwarfs'

We obtained linear polarization observations of 82 A/B-type stars in the young cluster NGC 6611, in order to probe the circumstellar material and to search for any evidence of intracluster or interstellar material that could also contribute to the polarization. We found linear polarization values that reach up to 14%. We consider the distribution

Linear polarization due to scattering processes can be used as a probe of the existence of atmospheric condensates in ultracool dwarfs. Models predict that the observed linear polarization increases with the degree of oblateness, which is inverse to the surface gravity.We aimed to measure optical linear polarization from a sample of six young brown

We show that grazing-incidence telescopes, like those used for X-ray imaging, present negligible instrumental polarization. This property does not depend on the number of reflections the telescope employs to lead light from the entrance pupil to the focal plane. The result applies to the various mirrors of the advanced X-ray astrophysics facility

The inner asteroid belt is an important source of near-Earth asteroids (NEAs). Dynamical studies of the inner asteroid belt have identified several families overlapping in proper orbital elements, including the Polana and Eulalia families that contain a large fraction of the low-albedo asteroids in this region. We present results from two