This paper reports on a near-infrared survey of early-type galaxies designed to provide information on bar strengths, bulges, disks, and bar parameters in a statistically well-defined sample of S0-Sa galaxies. Early-type galaxies have the advantage that their bars are relatively free of the effects of dust, star formation, and spiral structure that

The FT-IR spectra of C-76, C-78 and C-84 fullerenes were recorded in the temperature range between -180 degrees C and +250 degrees C. The purpose of the work is to provide reference infrared spectra for searching higher fullerene homologues in space after the recent and successful discovery of C-60 and C-70 in a series of different astrophysical

Until today, the small size of magnetic elements in quiet-Sun areas has required the application of indirect methods, such as the line-ratio technique or multi-component inversions, to infer their physical properties. A consistent match to the observed Stokes profiles could only be obtained by introducing a magnetic filling factor that specifies

The atmospheric parameters and iron abundance of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) spectrophotometric standard star BD +17 4708 are critically examined using up-to-date Kurucz model atmospheres, LTE line formation calculations, and reliable atomic data. We find Teff=6141 ± 50 K, log g=3.87 ± 0.08, and [Fe/H]=-1.74 ± 0.09. The line-of-sight

High mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) are important laboratories where to study the characteristics of the accretion processes and the nature of compact objects. For this reason, we have started the determination of the fundamental properties (mass, radius, temperature, etc.) of the optical components in four systems: 2S 0114+65, IGR J00370+6122, XTE

We present results of a long-baseline interferometry campaign using the PAVO beam combiner at the CHARA Array to measure the angular sizes of five main-sequence stars, one subgiant and four red giant stars for which solar-like oscillations have been detected by either Kepler or CoRoT. By combining interferometric angular diameters, Hipparcos