FRIDA is a diffraction-limited imager and integral-field spectrograph for the adaptive-optics focus of the Gran Telescopio Canarias. In imaging mode FRIDA provides scales of 10, 20 and 40 mas/pixel and in IFS mode spectral resolutions of about 1200, 4000 and 30,000. Coronographic masks are available in both modes for highcontrast images. FRIDA is

Context. Understanding the role of magnetic reconnection in the heating and dynamics of the solar atmosphere requires detailed observational data of any observable aspect of the reconnection process, including small-scale features such as plasmoids. Aims: Here, we examine the capability of active and upcoming instruments to detect plasmoids

Supermassive black holes require a reservoir of cold gas at the centre of their host galaxy in order to accrete and shine as active galactic nuclei (AGN). Major mergers have the ability to drive gas inwards through the strong tidal torques involved, but observations trying to link mergers with AGN have found mixed results due to the difficulty of

Galaxies infalling into clusters undergo both star formation quenching and morphological transformation due to environmental effects. We investigate these processes and their time-scales using a local sample of 20 191 cluster and 11 674 field galaxies from Sloan Digital Sky Survey. By analysing morphology as a function of distance from the star

The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) shows a large variation in ultraviolet (UV) dust extinction curves, ranging from Milky Way (MW) like to significantly steeper curves with no detectable 2175 Å bump. This result is based on a sample of only nine sight lines. From Hubble Space Telescope Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph and IUE spectra of OB stars

Context. Carbon is the fourth most abundant element in the universe and its distribution is critical to understanding stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis. In optical studies of ionized nebulae, the only way to determine the C/H abundance is by using faint C II recombination lines (RLs). However, these lines give systematically higher abundances