Non-axisymmetric features (such as bars and spirals) as well as general triaxialities (such as those of the bulge and halo) drive the dynamical and secular evolution of disk galaxies by exerting gravitational torques which redistribute mass and angular momentum. While most (> 70 %) spirals are barred in the local Universe, early studies of the HDF

We present an analysis of the orientation measurements of the Bronze Age Temple of Pella, took by the authors on the field in winter 2011. The site, famous for its huge ancient Roman ruins, had revealed on its lower acropolis the remains of a large sacred building, constructed in the 19th century BC during the Middle Bronze Age, that was

We present new mid-infrared (mid-IR) N-band spectroscopy and Q-band photometry of the local luminous IR galaxy NGC 1614, one of the most extreme nearby starbursts. We analyse the mid-IR properties of the nucleus (central 150 pc) and four regions of the bright circumnuclear (diameter˜600 pc) star-forming (SF) ring of this object. The nucleus differs

We present results from multi-band near-IR (J, H, and K) imaging of twelve BL Lac objects (z=0.055 to 0.774 for the 11/12 with well-determined redshifts) obtained with the du Pont 2.5m f/7.5 telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory. These AGN are a subset of the much larger BL Lac sample surveyed with HST, mostly in the R band. All twelve BL Lacs

We present R-band observations of the Cosmic Lens All-Sky Survey gravitational lens system B1152+199, obtained with the active optics system at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo. Owing to the very good spatial resolution of the images (0.6"), the optical counterpart of the two quasar components and the lens galaxy have been clearly identified

We present the discovery of substellar-mass companions to three stars by the ongoing Penn State-Toruń Planet Search conducted with the 9.2 m Hobby-Eberly Telescope. The K2-dwarf, BD+14 4559, has a 1.5 MJ minimum mass companion with the orbital period of 269 days and shows a non-linear, long-term radial velocity (RV) trend, which indicates a