The European Space Agency’s Planck satellite, dedicated to studying the early Universe and its subsequent evolution, was launched 14 May 2009 and has been scanning the microwave and submillimetre sky continuously since 12 August 2009. In March 2013, ESA and the Planck Collaboration released the initial cosmology products based on the first 15.5

Convex shape models and spin vectors of asteroids are now routinely derived from their disk-integrated lightcurves by the lightcurve inversion method of Kaasalainen et al. (2001, Icarus 153, 37). These shape models can be then used in combination with thermal infrared data and a thermophysical model to derive other physical parameters - size

Microvariations probe the physics and internal structure of quasars. Unpredictability and small flux variations make this phenomenon elusive and difficult to detect. Variance-based probes such as the C and F tests, or a combination of both, are popular methods to compare the light curves of the quasar and a comparison star. Recently, detection

On the basis of a recently updated data base of Sardinian Megalithic monuments, we perform two independent statistical analyses on several groups of these structures and confirm the existence of differences between the southern and northern halves of Sardinia, indicating that there seem to be different traditions of orientation in these two parts

In recent years the view of Galactic globular clusters as simple stellar populations has changed dramatically, it is now thought that basically all globular clusters host multiple stellar populations, each with its own chemical abundance pattern and colour-magnitude diagram sequence. Recent spectroscopic observations of asymptotic giant branch

Context. Most of the contribution to dust emission in clusters of galaxies comes from late-type galaxies. However, several ejection processes of material from these galaxies could introduce dust in the intracluster media. Even a relatively low abundance of this dust could act as an efficient cooling agent and have a relevant role in the evolution