Kinematic and population studies show that bulges are generally rotationally flattened systems similar to low-luminosity ellipticals. However, observations with state-of-the-art integral field spectrographs, such as SAURON, indicate that the situation is much more complex, and allow us to investigate phenomena such as triaxiality, kinematic

The origin of the peculiar stellar complex in the outskirts of the spiral galaxy NGC 6946 is discussed. The complex hosts a superstar cluster, two dozen smaller bright clusters and many high-luminosity stars 5-30 Myears old. In spite of this, no features in H I or CO are associated with the complex. The most simple explanation is that the complex

We present new 26Al stellar yields from rotating Wolf-Rayet stellar models which, at solar metallicity, well reproduce the observed properties of the Wolf-Rayet populations. These new yields are enhanced with respect to non-rotating models, even with respect to non-rotating models computed with enhanced mass loss rates. We briefly discuss some

Galactic 26Al is believed to be predominantly injected into the ISM from winds and supernovae of massive stars. These stars are typically born in groups and associations, which evolve over tens of Myrs, and shape the interstellar medium in their surroundings. 26Al contained in stellar outflows produces a γ-ray line at 1.809 MeV, which is

We have carried out high angular resolution near-infrared imaging and low-resolution (R˜1000) spectroscopy of the nearest known brown dwarf, varepsilon Indi B, using the ESO VLT NAOS/CONICA adaptive optics system. We find it to be a close binary (as also noted by Volk et al. 2003), with an angular separation of 0.732 arcsec, corresponding to 2.65

An XMM-Newton target of opportunity observation of the field around the transient pulsar XTE J0055-727 (ATEL #214) in the Small Magellanic Cloud was performed on 2003-12-18 between 14:32 UT and 19:48 UT. Two bright X-ray sources were detected by the EPIC instruments. XMMU J005455.4-724512 is consistent in position with CXOU J005455.6-724510 = RX