Probing the first billion years of the Universe is one of the last frontiers in cosmology. Ly-alpha emitters (LAEs) are galaxies that can be detected out to very high redshifts during the epoch of re-ionisation. The evolution of their luminosity function with redshift is a direct probe of the Ly-alpha transmission of the intergalactic medium (IGM)

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We give an overview over the different techniques to detect planets in other stars. A special emphasis is given to the transit method and the French/European CoRoT project, which will be the first space mission with a major dedication to the study the extrasolar planets.

The CoRoT space observatory is a project which is led by the French space agency CNES and leading space research institutes in Austria, Brazil, Belgium, Germany and Spain and also the European Space Agency ESA. CoRoT observed since its launch in December 27, 2006 about 100 000 stars for the exoplanet channel, during 150 days uninterrupted high

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