Hot spots (HSs) are regions of enhanced radio emission produced by supersonic jets at the tip of the radio lobes of powerful radio sources. Obtained with the Very Large Telescope (VLT), images of the HSs in the radio galaxy 3C 445 show bright knots embedded in diffuse optical emission distributed along the post-shock region created by the impact of

We present the results of a high spectral resolution (lambda / Delta lambda = 49 000) study of the circumstellar (CS) gas around the intermediate mass, pre-main sequence star UX Ori. The results are based on a set of 10 échelle spectra covering the spectral range 3800-5900 Å, monitoring the star on time scales of months, days and hours. A large

An overview is given over the photometric transit method for the detection of extraterrestrial planets. Discussed are: its basic principals, its derivable parameters, requirements for its implementation, and sources of confusion. Special emphasis is given space based experiments that may lead towards the detection of Earth-like planets. The

We present the thermal-magnetic relation in a simple, isolated sunspot deduced from the inversion of 1.56 μm spectropolarimetric data. Due to the high Zeeman sensitivity of the g = 3, Fe I 1.5648 μm line, we can study this relationship in the entire sunspot. An inversion technique based on response functions is used to derive various parameters

We present the preliminary results of mid-infrared images at 8.7, 9.7 and 12.5 micron of the complex massive star formation regions W3 Main and W 3(OH).

We investigate the spatial, kinematic and chemical properties of globular cluster systems formed in merging and interacting galaxies using N-body-smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations. Although we cannot resolve individual clusters in our simulation, we assume that they form in collapsing molecular clouds when the local external gas