Context. The origin of carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars enriched with both s and r elements is highly debated. Detailed abundances of these types of stars are crucial to understand the nature of their progenitors. Aims: The aim of this investigation is to study in detail the abundances of SDSS J1349-0229, SDSS J0912+0216 and SDSS J1036+1212, three

The optical spectra of objects classified as QSOs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 6 are analyzed with the aim of determining the value of the fine structure constant in the past and then checked for possible changes in the constant over cosmological timescales. The analysis is done by measuring the position of the fine structure lines

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We present the first results of a comprehensive HST study of the star-formation history of Fornax dSph, based on WFPC2 imaging of 7 Fornax fields. Our observations reach the oldest main-sequence turnoffs, allowing us to address fundamental questions of dwarf galaxy evolution, such as the spatial variations in the stellar content, and whether the

A comparison is carried out among the star formation histories of early-type galaxies in fossil groups, clusters and low density environments. Although they show similar evolutionary histories, a significant fraction of the fossils are younger than their counterparts, suggesting that they can be precursors of the isolated ETG galaxies.