In a recent book, Dodson (2009) has presented an updated impression of the Amarna period, in heavy contrast to the one lately defended by Krauss (2008) and other authors such as Reeves (2002) or Gabolde (2005), where Dodson uses the recent archaeological and epigraphical sources to offer an state of the art version of this fascinating historical

A good alternative to traditional methods of passing on astronomical concepts is to use a 'collateral' story that catches the public's attention. It may also simultaneously give a vital opportunity to awaken the critical faculty that often seems so perilously close to extinction these days. The recipe is simple: nothing but an actor or actress, his

We present ESO-NTT low resolution spectroscopy of the neutron star X-ray transient Cen X-4 in quiescence over a complete orbital cycle. Our data reveal the presence of a K3-7 V companion which contributes 63% to the 5600-6900 Å flux and orbits the neutron star with a velocity semi-amplitude of K_2=145.8± 1.0 km s-1. This, combined with a previous

I present results of a high-resolution imaging survey of barred S0--Sa galaxies which show that the central regions of these galaxies are surprisingly complex, and often dominated by dynamically cool components. In particular, inner bars --- secondary, small-scale bars (typically less than a kiloparsec in radius) located inside of, and probably

Following the observational and theoretical evidence that points at core-collapse supernovae (SNe) as major producers of dust, here we calculate the hydrodynamics of the matter reinserted within young and massive super stellar clusters under the assumption of gas and dust radiative cooling. The large SN rate expected in massive clusters allows for

Dwarf galaxies have been the crossroad of significant theoretical and observational efforts, but we still lack firm constraints concerning their formation and evolution. They are also fundamental laboratories to investigate the impact of the environment on star formation and on chemical evolution in stellar systems that are order of magnitudes