Context: It has been demonstrated that active galactic nuclei are powered by gas accretion onto supermassive black holes located at their centres. The paradigm that the nuclei of inactive galaxies are also occupied by black holes was predicted long ago by theory. In the past decade, this conjecture was confirmed by the discovery of giant-amplitude

We study the evolved stellar population of the Local Group galaxy IC10, with the aim of characterizing the individual sources observed and to derive global information on the galaxy, primarily the star-formation history and the dust production rate. To this aim, we use evolutionary sequences of low- and intermediate-mass (M < 8 M_{⊙}) stars

Aims: Exo-planets are preferentially found around high metallicity main sequence stars. We investigate whether evolved stars share this property, and its implications for planet formation. Methods: Statistical tools and the basic concepts of stellar evolution theory are applied to published results as well as our own radial velocity and chemical

IAUC 6096 available at Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams.

Aims: We study the impact of the presence of planets on the lithium abundance of host stars and evaluate the previous claim that planet hosts exhibit lithium depletion when compared to their non-host counterparts. Methods: Using previously published lithium abundances, we remove the confounding effect of the different fundamental stellar parameters

It is foreseen that in the near future we will be able to measure the light from extrasolar planets similar to the Earth. When these data become available, a truly interdisciplinary approach to their analysis will be necessary in order to understand the physical properties of these worlds based on globally-averaged measurements. In this task