Aims: EX Lupi is the prototype of EXors, a subclass of low-mass pre-main sequence stars whose episodic eruptions are attributed to temporarily increased accretion. In quiescence the optical and near-infrared properties of EX Lup cannot be distinguished from those of normal T Tau stars. Here we investigate whether it is the circumstellar disk

We have acquired narrowband imaging of NGC 3587 (the Owl Nebula) in the transitions [O II] λλ3727, 3729, H I λ4861, [O III] λ5007, H I λ6563, [N II] λ6584, [S II] λ6717, and [S II] λ6731. As a result, we are able to evaluate the variation of excitation and electron density over the projected envelope of the source. We propose that the Owl Nebula

We compare calculated intensities of lines of C II, N I, N II, O I and O II with a published deep spectroscopic survey of IC 418. Our calculations use a self-consistent nebular model and a synthetic spectrum of the central star atmosphere to take into account line excitation by continuum fluorescence and electron recombination. We found that the N

We use Spitzer MIPS data from the FIDEL Legacy Project in the extended Groth strip to analyze the stellar mass assembly of massive (M>1011 Msolar) galaxies at z 1, and more pronouncedly at z>1.3, the median specific SFRs of the disks and spheroids detected by MIPS are very similar, ranging from 0.1 to 1 Gyr-1 (SFR=10-200 Msolar yr-1). We estimate

We report the discovery of three very late T dwarfs in the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) Third Data Release: ULAS J101721.40+011817.9 (ULAS1017), ULAS J123828.51+095351.3 (ULAS1238) and ULAS J133553.45+113005.2 (ULAS1335). We detail optical and near-infrared (NIR) photometry for all three sources, and mid-IR photometry for ULAS1335. We

Recent studies have shown that at low metallicities Doppler-detected planet-hosting stars tend to have high α-content and to belong to the thick disk. We used the reconnaissance spectra of 87 Kepler planet candidates and data available from the HARPS planet search survey to explore this phenomenon. Using the traditional spectroscopic abundance