The Time Inference with MUSE in Extragalactic Rings (TIMER) project is a survey with the VLT-MUSE integral-field spectrograph of 24 nearby barred galaxies with prominent central structures (e.g. nuclear rings or inner discs). The main goals of the project are: (i) estimating the cosmic epoch when discs of galaxies settle, leading to the formation

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) has a rich history of releasing value-added catalogs for objects of interest to researchers, especially quasars. In that vein, we present the sixteenth quasar catalog for SDSS and the last quasar catalog for the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS). This new catalog of quasars, the largest to

We present the discovery of a 3h5m orbital-period binary star at the heart of the planetary nebula M 3-1 - the shortest period photometrically variable central star known and second only to V458 Vul, in general. Combined modelling of light and radial velocity curves reveals both components to be close to Roche lobe filling, strongly indicating that

Recent work indicates that the nearby Galactic halo is dominated by the debris from a major accretion event. We confirm that result from an analysis of APOGEE-DR14 element abundances and Gaia-DR2 kinematics of halo stars. We show that ˜2/3 of nearby halo stars have high orbital eccentricities (e ≳ 0.8), and abundance patterns typical of massive

There is a correlation between the bulge mass of the three main galaxies of the Local Group (LG), i.e., M31, Milky Way (MW), and M33, and the number of their dwarf spheroidal galaxies. A similar correlation has also been reported for spiral galaxies with comparable luminosities outside the LG. These correlations do not appear to be expected in

We present a project to build a 4-m-diameter telescope (New Robotic Telescope [NRT]) with fully robotic operation. The telescope will be sited at the Observatory of Roque de los Muchachos in the island of La Palma (Spain). When it enters into operation in 5 years' time, it will be likely the largest robotic telescope in the world. This, in