Searching for subtle dips in brightness is all the rage among astronomers seeking Earthlike planets beyond the solar system.

We present a study focusing on the nature of compact groups (CGs) through the study of their elliptical (E) galaxies. Parameters describing the internal dynamics and the stellar populations of the galaxies are compared with their counterparts in other environments. Our sample has 24 bright E galaxies located in the core of Hickson CGs and 11 bright

We report here on the discovery of supersonic Evershed downflows in the penumbra of a sunspot. These flows are shown to occur along spatially unresolved, very cold magnetic flux tubes whose downflowing footpoints are found from the middle penumbra outward. Evershed flows along magnetic field lines returning to the solar surface were discovered by

Near-infrared (JHK) images of the nucleus of the barred spiral galaxy M100 (NGC 4321) have been obtained using a high-bandwidth tip-tilt secondary and fast guider system on the 3.8 m United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT). The resulting images, with a resolution of 0.34'' at K, reveal for the first time a host of compact `knots', which appear to

In this paper we present first results from an observational study of the connection between the global parameters of barred galaxies and the appearance of structures, such as dust lanes and star-forming rings in their circumnuclear regions. We combine near-infrared imaging of the central small-scale core structure with optical imaging of the large

We report results from Chandra observations of the X-ray jet of 3C 273 during the calibration phase in 2000 January. The zeroth-order images and spectra from two 40 ks exposures with the High-Energy Transmission Grating and Low-Energy Transmission Grating + Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer-S show a complex X-ray structure. The brightest optical