Recent studies have shown that at low metallicities Doppler-detected planet-hosting stars tend to have high α-content and to belong to the thick disk. We used the reconnaissance spectra of 87 Kepler planet candidates and data available from the HARPS planet search survey to explore this phenomenon. Using the traditional spectroscopic abundance

This paper presents optical UBVRI broadband photo-polarimetry of the EXPORT sample obtained at the 2.5 m Nordic Optical Telescope. The database consists of multi-epoch photo-polarimetry of 68 pre-main-sequence and main-sequence stars. An investigation of the polarization variability indicates that 22 objects are variable at the 3sigma level in our

VLT and NTT spectra are used to examine the nuclear and extended coronal line emission in a sample of well-known Seyfert 1 and 2 galaxies. The excellent spatial resolution obtained with VLT allowed us to map [Si VI] 1.963μm and [Si VII] 2.48μm on scales of up to 20 pc. Coronal line emission, extended to distances of ˜102 pc, is detected in some of

The regions of high excitation gas detected around various Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) are examined. The radiation emitted by the nucleus may be responsible for the high ionization of the line emitting gas. Evidence that the radiation field is anisotropic and collimated in a direction close to the cone axis is found. The possibility that a

Regions of high excitation gas were detected around various active galactic nuclei. Their shape resembles a cone whose axis is oriented close to the radio axis. The radiation emitted by the nucleus may be responsible for the high ionization of the line emitting gas. Moreover there is evidence that the radiation field should be anisotropic and

We present new HST/ACS medium- and narrow-band images and optical Isaac Newton Telescope long-slit spectra of the merging system Mrk273. The HST observations sample the [OIII]λλ4959,5007 emission from the galaxy and the nearby continuum. These data were taken as a part of a larger study of ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs) with the aim of