Spectro-polarimetric observations with the Solar Optical Telescope onboard Hinode reveal the emission spectrum of the Fe I 630 nm lines at the solar limb. The emission shell extends for less than 1'' thereby making it extremely difficult to detect from ground-based observatories viewing the limb through the Earth's atmosphere. The linear

The theories of evolution of life on Earth have been based on the principle of storing and transmitting information of organisms in the genes, which according to the sequence of nucleotides could form proteins.

Context. The standard prescription of angular momentum loss in compact binaries assumes magnetic braking to be very efficient as long as the secondary star has a radiative core, but to be negligible if the secondary star is fully convective. This prescription has been developed to explain the orbital period gap observed in the orbital period

Aims: We aim to interpret the photometric and spectroscopic variability of the luminous blue variable supergiant HD 50064 (V = 8.21). Methods: CoRoT space photometry and follow-up high-resolution spectroscopy with a time base of 137 d and 169 d, respectively, was gathered, analysed, and interpreted using standard time series analysis and light

Aims: In this paper we establish a compositional and dynamical connection between two B-type objects: main belt asteroid (2) Pallas and near-Earth asteroid (3200) Phaethon. The final purpose is to help understand the origin of this very interesting object. Methods: We first compare visible and near-infrared spectra of asteroids Phaethon and Pallas

The transient black hole candidate GX 339-4 is currently softening in X-ray, making a transition out of the hard state (ATel #2545). We are monitoring the source with the Faulkes Telescope South (located at Siding Spring, Australia) and the SMARTS 1.3m telescope and ANDICAM instrument (at Cerro Tololo, Chile). From the Faulkes monitoring, the