We present optical and near-infrared (NIR) surface brightness and colour profiles, in bands ranging from U to K, for the disk and bulge components of a complete sample of 30 nearby S0 to Sbc galaxies with inclinations larger than 50 deg. We describe in detail the observations and the determination of colour parameters. Calibrated monochromatic and

Mn-Cr data are reported for chondrules from the Bishunpur and Chainpur LL chondrites. It is shown that variations in Mn/Cr for these chondrules were established during condensation of solids from the solar nebula; the whole-chondrule isochrons should give an upper limit to the time of chondrule formation and an estimate of when the chondrule

Using optical images and spectra of the bipolar nebula M 2-9 we show that, in addition to the well-known bright inner nebula, the object has fast, highly collimated outflows reaching a total extent of 115". These radially opposed and point-symmetric outer lobes are both redshifted, leading us to model the radiation from them in terms of light

Martian meteorite EETA79001 is composed of two distinct magmatic lithologies, astutely named A and B, joined by an igneous contact. Lithology B is a coarse-grained, ferroan basalt, while lithology A is both finer-grained and more magnesian. In addition, lithology A contains xenocrysts and xenoliths of olivine, orthopyroxene and chromite, which are

Using CGS4 on UKIRT, we have obtained the first 2.05-2.45 μm infrared spectra of the Galactic bulge low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) GX1+4 and GX13+1. We report the detection of Brackett gamma emission from the accretion disc in both systems, confirming the identification of the IR counterpart to GX13+1. In addition, both spectra show CO molecular

We have obtained an H-band infrared light curve of the low-mass X-ray binary transient Nova Muscae 1991. We model the light curve as being due to the tidal distortion of the secondary star in the gravitational field of a black hole, and thus deduce the binary inclination to be 54 deg, with 90 per cent confidence limits of +20 deg/-15 deg. Combining