Context. The penumbra of sunspots has a complex magnetic field topology whose three-dimensional organization remains unclear after more than a century of investigation. Aims: I derive a geometrical model of the penumbral magnetic field topology from an uncombed inversion setup designed to reproduce the net circular polarization (NCP) of

Amino acids in Solar system bodies may have played a key role in the chemistry that led to the origin of life on Earth. We present laboratory studies testing the stability of amino acids against high energy radiation. All the 20 chiral amino acids in the levo form found in the proteins of the current terrestrial biochemistry were irradiated in the

One salient result of global helioseismology is the mapping of the so-called torsional oscillations below the solar surface. These subsurface flows are inferred by inverting rotational frequency splitting sets of global modes. These flows extend down to a depth of at least 0.8 R, and are likely associated with the activity cycle of our star. To

Context. (65) Cybele is the most representative member of a population of primitive asteroids in the outer edge of the main belt, the Cybele asteroids. Recent dynamical models suggest that a significant fraction of them originated in the primordial transneptunian disk, so the study of the physical properties of these asteroids is potentially a

The VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) is an ESO public near-IR variability survey that is scanning the Milky Way bulge and an adjacent section of the Galactic mid-plane. The survey will take 1929 hours of observations with the VISTA 4.1-m telescope during five years, covering a billion point sources across an area of 520 sqdeg, including 36

The Tarantula survey is an ESO Large Programme which has obtained multi-epochs spectroscopy of over 800 massive stars in the 30 Dor region in the Large Magelanic Cloud. Here we briefly describe the main drivers of the survey and the observational material derived.