Observing the first galaxies formed during the reionisation epoch, i.e. approximately within the first billion years after the Big Bang, remains one of the challenges of contemporary astrophysics. Several efforts are being undertaken to search for such remote objects. Combining the near-IR imaging power of the VLT and the natural effect of strong

We present a fully differential chemical abundance analysis using very high resolution (λ/δλ >~ 85, 000) and very high signal-to-noise (S/N ~800 on average) HARPS and UVES spectra of 7 solar twins and 95 solar analogs, of which 24 are planet hosts and 71 are stars without detected planets. The whole sample of solar analogs provides very accurate

Rotation is expected to have an important influence on the structure and the evolution of stars. However, the mechanisms of angular momentum transport in stars remain theoretically uncertain and very complex to take into account in stellar models. To achieve a better understanding of these processes, we desperately need observational constraints on

Using a numerical three-dimensional MHD modelling of magneto-acoustic wave propagation in a realistic magnetostatic sunspot model we investigate the influence of the magnetic field on the parameters measured by local helioseismology. We find that the variations of temperature as well as the presence of the magnetic field cause important changes to

2MASX J04035024-0239275 is a bright red elliptical galaxy at redshift 0.0661 that presents two extended sources at 2″ to the north-east and 1″ to the south-west. The sizes and surface brightnesses of the two blue sources are consistent with a gravitationally-lensed background galaxy. In this paper, we present Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE

We present CCD photometry in the Washington system C and T1 passbands down to T1 ~ 22 in the fields of L35, L45, L49, L50, L62, L63 and L85, seven poorly studied star clusters in the inner region of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). We measured T1 magnitudes and C - T1 colours for a total of 114826 stars distributed throughout cluster areas of 13.7