Integral field optical spectroscopy using the INTEGRAL system, complemented with HST imaging, has been used to characterize the merging process giving rise to the ultraluminous infrared galaxy IRAS 08572+3915, the star formation along the tidal tails of the galaxy, and the nature of the nuclear ionizing sources deep within the galaxy. The overall

We have obtained HST-NICMOS observations of five of M31's most metal rich globular clusters: G1, G170, G174, G177 & G280. In order to disentangle the true properties of the population from the observational effects associated with measurements made in very crowded fields, we first present a careful analysis of photometry in crowded regions. Here we

Several kiloparsec-scale X-ray jets have now been discovered with the Chandra X-ray Observatory, extending up to ~50 kpc (projected distance) from the active galactic nucleus in which the jet originates. In all cases, these jets also emit radio and optical light, which can be well explained as synchrotron radiation. We suggest that in at least some

Simultaneous time series of broadband images of two active regions close to the disk center were acquired at the Swedish Vacuum Solar Telescope, La Palma, in the infrared bands at 1.55 and 0.80 μm, corresponding to the minimum and maximum continuum opacities, respectively. Dark faculae are detected in images obtained as weighted intensity

We have photometrically searched the circumstellar habitable zone (about 95 eclipsing binary system CM Draconis for evidence of planetary transits. With 1014 hours of imaging data we have reached a detection limit of about 2.3 Earth radii (less than 1 60 days or less, marginally demonstrating that the ground-based detection of large terrestrial

We simulate the characteristics of the Galactic population of radio and gamma-ray pulsars using Monte Carlo techniques. At birth, neutron stars are spatially distributed with supernova-kick velocities in the Galactic disk and randomly dispersed in age back to 109 years. They are evolved in the Galactic gravitational potential to the present time.