Context. NRAO 150 is one of the brightest radio and mm AGN sources in the northern sky, and is an interesting source to study extreme relativistic jet phenomena. However, its cosmological distance has not yet been calibrated, because of its optical faintness due to strong Galactic extinction. Aims: We measure the redshift of NRAO 150, to enable us

We report the discovery of peculiar features in the optical spectrum of 4C+22.25, a flat spectrum radio quasar at z = 0.4183 observed in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and in a dedicated spectroscopic follow-up from the Nordic Optical Telescope. The Hβ and Hα lines show broad profiles (FWHM ~ 12,000 km s-1), faint fluxes, and extreme offsets (Δv =

Near-Earth asteroid (NEA) 101955 (1999 RQ36; henceforth RQ36) is especially accessible to spacecraft and is the primary target of NASA's OSIRIS-REx sample return mission; it is also a potentially hazardous asteroid. We combine dynamical and spectral information to identify the most likely main-belt origin of RQ36 and we conclude that it is the

We present time-resolved optical spectroscopy of V458 Vulpeculae (Nova Vul 2007 No. 1) spread over a period of 15 months starting 301d after its discovery. Our data reveal radial-velocity variations in the HeII λ5412 and HeII λ4686 emission lines. A period analysis of the radial-velocity curves resulted in a period of 98.09647 +/- 0.00025min (0

We use archival Hubble Space Telescope observations of resolved stellar populations to derive the star formation histories (SFHs) of 18 nearby starburst dwarf galaxies. In this first paper, we present the observations, color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs), and the SFHs of the 18 starburst galaxies, based on a homogeneous approach to the data reduction

Context. The link between how bipolar planetary nebulae are shaped and their central stars is still poorly understood. Aims: This paper investigates the kinematics and shaping of the multipolar nebula M 1-75, and briefly discusses the location and nature of its central star. Methods: Fabry-Perot data from GHαFAS on the WHT that samples the Doppler