We present high-resolution echelle spectra of seven proximate damped Lyman α (PDLA) systems. The relative velocity separation of each PDLA from the background quasar is Δ V 3000 km s-1. Combining our sample with a further nine PDLAs from the literature we compare the chemical properties of the proximate systems with a control sample of intervening

We present two-dimensional line-of-sight stellar kinematics of the lens galaxy in the Einstein Cross, obtained with the GEMINI 8 m telescope, using the GMOS integral-field spectrograph. The stellar kinematics extend to a radius of 4'' (with 0farcs2 spaxels), covering about two-thirds of the effective (or half-light) radius Re ~= 6'' of this early

HH 110 is a rather peculiar HerbigHaro object in Orion that originates due to the deflection of another jet (HH 270) by a dense molecular clump, instead of being directly ejected from a young stellar object. Here we present new results on the kinematics and physical conditions of HH 110 based on Integral Field Spectroscopy. The 3D spectral data

The relatively recent insight that energy input from supermassive black holes (BHs) can have a substantial effect on the star formation rates (SFRs) of galaxies motivates us to examine the effects of BH feedback on the scale of galaxy groups. At present, groups contain most of the galaxies and a significant fraction of the overall baryon content of

We report the detection and analysis of the red giant branch (RGB) luminosity function bump in a sample of isolated dwarf galaxies in the Local Group. We have designed a new analysis approach comparing the observed color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) with theoretical best-fit CMDs derived from precise estimates of the star formation histories of each

Following the report of the newly detected outburst of the transient XTE J1728-295 (possibly IGR J17285-2922 detected by INTEGRAL) in the RXTE PCA bulge scans (ATel #2823), we requested a Swift ToO observation to follow up the source based on the position given by the RXTE PCA best fit results (ATel #2823). The observation was performed on 2010-08