We present a detailed spectroscopic study of 93 solar-type stars that are targets of the NASA/Kepler mission and provide detailed chemical composition of each target. We find that the overall metallicity is well represented by Fe lines. Relative abundances of light elements (CNO) and α elements are generally higher for low-metallicity stars. Our

Ground-based observations were used to analyze the CMD over a wide spatial field in the B and V bands and to estimate the atmospheric parameters of the spectroscopic targets. In addition, we used ground-based U images available for a smaller field, and images taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys onboard the HST (ACS/HST) in the F606W and

Using microlensing measurements for a sample of 27 image pairs of 19 lensed quasars we determine a maximum likelihood estimate for the accretion disk size of an average quasar of rs = 4.0+2.4 - 3.1 lt-day at rest frame langλrang = 1736 Å for microlenses with a mean mass of langMrang = 0.3 M &sun;. This value, in good agreement with previous results

We present an interesting Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (SZ) detection in the first of the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager (AMI) ‘blind’, degree-square fields to have been observed down to our target sensitivity of ?. In follow-up deep pointed observations the SZ effect is detected with a maximum peak decrement greater than eight times the thermal noise. No

One of the main challenges for current cosmology is the conciliation, in a single theory, of the formation of large-scale structures in the Universe and the properties of nearby galaxies, including the Milky Way. The most widely accepted scenario is based on cold dark matter, in which a significant fraction of the galaxies observed at present were

An analysis of photometric observations of binary Near-Earth asteroid (175706) 1996 FG3, taken from 1996 to 2012, gave a single solution for a quadratic drift of the mean anomaly of the satellite, 0.0 deg/yr^2, consistent with recent BYORP theory.