We have obtained the best fit to the light profiles of a luminosity- limited sample of elliptical and S0 galaxies with a power law r^1/n^, letting the exponent remain free rather than keeping it fixed at 1/n = 1/4 as in the well-known de Vaucouleurs formula. The introduction of a free parameter in the fitting formula (ranging from n = 0.5 for (r_e_

Models of the origin of spheroidal stellar systems, or cluster formation scenarios, need to account for empirical correlations both between scale and velocity dispersion σ and between luminosity and σ found in star-forming regions and relaxed spheroidal stellar systems. The model here proposed accounts for both correlations if the stellar system

The ZZ Ceti stars form a class of variable white dwarfs: the hydrogen dominated atmosphere ones, which do pulsate in an instability strip in the effective temperature range 13000K-11500K. We know 22 such ZZ Ceti white dwarfs. Their variations are caused by nonradial g-mode pulsations with periods are in the range 100-1000 seconds. A subsample of

Observational evidence accumulated over the last decade strongly supports the idea that the ionizing radiation field in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is anisotropic. Here we report on new evidence for this anisotropy in the particular case of the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 5252. H I observations of this galaxy reveal neutral gas surrounding the nucleus

It has been known since the work by Claverie et al. (1982) that integrated-sunlight velocities measured with the resonance scattering technique show variations with time scales of weeks to months. The cause can be understood in terms of the effects of solar activity as was pointed out by Edmunds & Gough (1983) and Andersen & Maltby (1983). The

We have analyzed long-slit spectroscopic data for a sample of tidally disturbed elliptical galaxies. Rotation curves and velocity dispersion profiles have been measured at a variety of position angles in these galaxies and have been used to analyze the dynamical response and internal kinematics of stellar systems involved in strong gravitational