This paper presents an overview of the polarized sky as seen by Planck HFI at 353 GHz, which is the most sensitive Planck channel for dust polarization. We construct and analyse maps of dust polarization fraction and polarization angle at 1° resolution, taking into account noise bias and possible systematic effects. The sensitivity of the Planck

Aims: We present a detailed and uniform study of oxygen abundance from two different oxygen lines at 6158 Å and 6300 Å in a large sample of solar-type stars. The results are used to check the behaviour of these spectral lines as oxygen abundance indicators and to study the evolution of oxygen in thick and thin disk populations of the Galaxy

The objective of the Extreme Universe Space Observatory (EUSO) program is detection and measurement of high-energy particles that reach earth's atmosphere from space. Clouds at mid and upper levels of the troposphere can interfere with such detection. Therefore, determining cloud top height with high accuracy is crucial to estimating the effect of

With the aim of characterizing the atmospheric Na layer, the Teide Observatory facilities have been used in the last years to carry out a long term monitoring experiment on LGS generation by low power laser excitation. The LGSs are generated by a Rodamine 6G Dye tunable laser launched from the Optical Ground Station with a typical output power of

More than 50 years after the dawn of X-ray astronomy, the dynamical parameters of the prototypical X-ray binary Sco X-1 are still unknown. We combine a Monte Carlo analysis, which includes all the previously known orbital parameters of the system, along with the K-correction to set dynamical constraints to the masses of the compact object (M1 1.73

Context. MWC 656 has recently been established as the first observationally detected high-mass X-ray binary system containing a Be star and a black hole (BH). The system has been associated with a gamma-ray flaring event detected by the AGILE satellite in July 2010. Aims: Our aim is to evaluate whether the MWC 656 gamma-ray emission extends to very