Aims: The nearby, bright, almost completely unreddened Type Ia supernova 2011fe in M101 provides a unique opportunity to test both the precision and the accuracy of the extragalactic distances derived from SNe Ia light curve fitters. Methods: We applied the current, public versions of the independent light curve fitting codes MLCS2k2 and SALT2 to

We present a systematic study of the morphology of homoepitaxial InP films grown by metalorganic vapor-phase epitaxy which are imaged with ex situ atomic force microscopy. These films show a dramatic range of different surface morphologies as a function of the growth conditions and substrate (growth temperature, V/III ratio, and miscut angle

Context. Although many studies have been performed so far, there are still dozens of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in the young σ Orionis open cluster without detailed spectroscopic characterisation. Aims: We look for unknown strong accretors and disc hosts that were undetected in previous surveys. Methods: We collected low-resolution

We present the results of a spectroscopic survey performed in the outskirts of the globular cluster NGC 1851 with VIsible MultiObject Spectrograph (VIMOS)/Very Large Telescope (VLT). The radial velocities of 107 stars in a region between 12 and 33 arcmin around the cluster have been derived. We clearly identify the cluster stellar population over

We present the results of the first spectroscopic follow-up of 132 optically blue ultraviolet (UV)-excess sources selected from the UV-Excess Survey of the Northern Galactic Plane (UVEX). The UV-excess spectra are classified into different populations and grids of model spectra are fitted to determine spectral types, temperatures, surface gravities

The atmospheric parameters were derived using a strictly spectroscopic method based on the LTE analysis of equivalent widths of FeI and FeII lines. With existing photometric data and the Hipparcos parallaxes, we estimated stellar masses and ages via evolutionary tracks fitting. The stellar radii were calculated from either estimated masses and the