VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) is a public ESO near-IR variability survey aimed at scanning the Milky Way Bulge and an adjacent section of the mid-plane. VVV observations started in October 2009 during ESO science verification. Regular observations for the first year of the survey have been conducted since February 2010 and will cover a

We present a search for Herschel-PACS counterparts of dust-obscured, high-redshift objects previously selected at submillimeter and millimeter wavelengths in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey North field. We detect 22 of 56 submillimeter galaxies (SMGs, 39%) with a signal-to-noise ratio of >=3 at 100 μm down to 3.0 mJy, and/or at 160 μm

Context. Spectropolarimetry at high spatial and spectral resolution is a basic tool to characterize the magnetic properties of the solar atmosphere. Aims: We introduce the KIS/IAA Visible Imaging Polarimeter (VIP), a new post-focus instrument that upgrades the TESOS spectrometer at the German Vacuum Tower Telescope (VTT) into a full vector

We report the discovery by the CoRoT satellite of a new transiting giant planet in a 2.83 days orbit about a V = 15.5 solar analog star (M_* = 1.08 ± 0.08 M_&sun;, R_* = 1.1 ± 0.1 R_&sun;, Teff = 5675 ± 80 K). This new planet, CoRoT-12b, has a mass of 0.92 ± 0.07 MJup and a radius of 1.44 ± 0.13 RJup. Its low density can be explained by standard

Aims: We report the discovery of CoRoT-8b, a dense small Saturn-class exoplanet that orbits a K1 dwarf in 6.2 days, and we derive its orbital parameters, mass, and radius. Methods: We analyzed two complementary data sets: the photometric transit curve of CoRoT-8b as measured by CoRoT and the radial velocity curve of CoRoT-8 as measured by the HARPS

Context. The space telescope CoRoT searches for transiting extrasolar planets by continuously monitoring the optical flux of thousands of stars in several fields of view. Aims: We report the discovery of CoRoT-10b, a giant planet on a highly eccentric orbit (e = 0.53 ± 0.04) revolving in 13.24 days around a faint (V = 15.22) metal-rich K1V star