We present radial velocity observations of four extremely low-mass (0.2 M sun) white dwarfs (WDs). All four stars show peak-to-peak radial velocity variations of 540-710 km s-1 with 1.0-5.9 hr periods. The optical photometry rules out main-sequence companions. In addition, no millisecond pulsar companions are detected in radio observations. Thus

We report the discovery of a very cool d/sdL7+T7.5p common proper motion binary system, SDSS J1416+13AB, found by cross-matching the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) Large Area Survey Data Release 5 (UKIDSS LAS DR4) against the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7. The d/sdL7 is blue in J - H and H - K

We investigate the accuracy of mass determinations MBH of supermassive black holes in galaxies using dynamical models of the stellar kinematics. We compare 10 of our MBH measurements, using integral-field OASIS kinematics, to published values. For a sample of 25 galaxies we confront our new MBH derived using two modeling methods on the same OASIS

SUNRISE is a balloon-borne telescope with an aperture of one meter. It is equipped with a filter imager for the UV wavelength range between 214 nm and 400 nm (SUFI), and with a spectro-polarimeter that measures the magnetic field of the photosphere using the Fe I line at 525.02 nm that has a Landé factor of 3. SUNRISE performed its first science

Using HI Nearby Galaxy Survey (THINGS) 21-cm observations of a sample of nearby (nearly face-on) galaxies we explore whether the stellar disk truncation phenomenon produces any signature either in the HI gas density and/or in the gas dynamics. Recent cosmological simulations suggest that the origin of the break on the surface brightness

B-type asteroids have a negative slope from ˜0.5 to ˜1.1 μm and beyond. What causes this? Visible to near-infrared reflectance spectra (0.4-2.5 μm) are assembled for 22 B-type asteroids. The spectra fall naturally into three groups: (1) those with negative (blue) spectral shapes like 2 Pallas (7 objects), (2) those with concave curve shapes like 24