We employ the first two years of data from the near-infrared, high-resolution SDSS-III/APOGEE spectroscopic survey to investigate the distribution of metallicity and α-element abundances of stars over a large part of the Milky Way disk. Using a sample of ≈10, 000 kinematically unbiased red-clump stars with ~5% distance accuracy as tracers, the [α

Context. Some observations indicate that the Milky Way has two inner components, a bulge and a long bar, which present a misalignment of Δα ≃ 20° that is against the predictions of some theoretical models that are based on numerical simulations. Aims: We wish to determine whether this misalignment between the bar and the bulge can be observed in

By means of a modified thermophysical model (TPM) that takes into account asteroid shape and pole uncertainties, we analyze the thermal infrared data acquired by the NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) of about 300 asteroids with derived convex shape models. We adopt convex shape models from the DAMIT database (Durech et al., 2010, A

The INT/WFC Photometric Hα Survey of the Northern Galactic Plane (IPHAS) is a 1800 deg2 imaging survey covering Galactic latitudes |b| 5° and longitudes ℓ = 30°-215° in the r, i, and Hα filters using the Wide Field Camera (WFC) on the 2.5-m Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) in La Palma. We present the first quality-controlled and globally calibrated

PLATO 2.0 has recently been selected for ESA's M3 launch opportunity (2022/24). Providing accurate key planet parameters (radius, mass, density and age) in statistical numbers, it addresses fundamental questions such as: How do planetary systems form and evolve? Are there other systems with planets like ours, including potentially habitable planets

We use deep Herschel Space Observatory observations of a 90 per cent complete sample of 32 intermediate-redshift 2Jy radio galaxies (0.05 z 0.7) with strong emission lines to estimate the dust masses of their host galaxies and thereby investigate the triggering mechanisms for their quasar-like AGN. The dust masses derived for the radio galaxies