Our group is presently conducting an observational campaign, using the 10-meter Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), to obtain the transmission spectrum of several exoplanets during a transit event. The GTC instrument OSIRIS is used in its long-slit spectroscopic mode, covering the spectral range of 520-1040 nm, and observations are taken using a set of

We present some results from a new 2D spectrograph, SAURON (Bacon et al. 2001; de Zeeuw et al. 2002). Each SAURON, exposure provides stellar as well as gaseous kinematics and absorption line strength in the wavelength range (4800-5200 Å), covering an area of (33"x41"). We have observed a sample of 24 early-type spiral galaxies, and have obtained

We analyzed the near-infrared to UV data of 16 quasars with redshifts ranging from 0.71

EMIR is a wide-field, near-IR spectrograph currently under development for the Nasmyth focus of the Spanish 10.4m GTC at Canary Islands. EMIR will provide imaging and multi-slit spectroscopy in the ˜1-2.5 micron domain at a resolution of R˜5000-4000. This paper reviews the status of the project, including instrumental developments and main science

We report on our ongoing efforts to probe for extrasolar giant planets in the Sigma Orionis open cluster. With an age of about 3 Myr, a distance of about 440 pc and very low reddening, this cluster provides a privileged hunting ground for brown dwarfs and superplanets. Several L dwarfs and one T dwarf have been identified in the cluster. Assuming

We give a progress report on the activities within the CIFIST Team related to the search for extremely metal-poor (EMP) stars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey's (SDSS) spectroscopic catalogue. So far, the search has provided 25 candidates with metallicities around or smaller than -3. For 15 candidates, high-resolution spectroscopy with UVES at the