A description of the Spanish contribution to the Marco Polo mission and of the mission itself is presented. Marco Polo is a joint European-Japanese mission of sample return from a Near Earth Object (NEO). Submitted to ESA on July 2007 in the framework of the Cosmic Vision 2015-2025, Marco Polo passed the first evaluation process on October 2007

Waves connect all the layers of the Sun, from its interior to the upper atmosphere. It is becoming clear now the important role of magnetic field on the wave propagation. Magnetic field modifies propagation speed of waves, thus affecting the conclusions of helioseismological studies. It can change the direction of the wave propagation, help

Solar gravity (g) modes propagate within the radiative part of the solar interior and are highly sensitive to the physical conditions of the solar core. They would represent the best tool to infer the structure and the dynamics of the radiative interior, in particular the core, if they were properly detected and characterized. Although individual

We present SAURON stellar kinematical analysis for four double-barred early-type galaxies: NGC 2859, NGC 3941, NGC 4725 and NGC 5850. The presence of the inner bar is not evident from the radial velocity, but it appears to have an important effect in the stellar velocity dispersion maps: we find two σ-hollows of amplitudes between 10 and 40 km s- 1

Two research paths are described to obtain better understanding of the origin of global solar activity. First, observations with a multichannel resonant spectrometer may reveal the dynamics of the solar core, the tachocline, and the temporal evolution of activity between the photosphere and chromosphere. Such new observations will deliver

The advent of Extremely Large Telescopes impose the existence of wavefront correctors to achieve diffraction limited images. The light collection area is more evidently affected by atmospheric turbulences and image distortion is more relevant than in smaller telescopes. AO system where mostly used to improve the performances while now turn to be a