The determination of the chemical composition of extrasolar planets has been the subject of numerous studies in the last years. While the composition of the atmosphere of planets can be observed through, e.g., the absorption of the star light, the composition of the solids remains difficult to estimate. As both planetesimals and planets are formed

The existing status of our knowledge of binary central stars of planetary nebulae will be explored. Binary modeling of known systems is providing physical parameters that can be compared amongst the sample, with nebular characteristics, and with similar binaries with no associated planetary nebula. Correlations among these areas will be discussed

Massive stars in young massive clusters insert tremendous amounts of mass and energy into their surroundings in the form of stellar winds and supernova ejecta. Mutual shock-shock collisions lead to formation of hot gas, filling the volume of the cluster. The pressure of this gas then drives a powerful cluster wind. However, it has been shown that

Context. Baade's window (BW) is one of the most observed Galactic bulge fields in terms of chemical abundances. Owing to its low and homogeneous interstellar absorption it is considered the perfect calibration field for Galactic bulge studies. Aims: In the era of large spectroscopic surveys, calibration fields such as BW are necessary for cross

Aims: The B fields in OB stars (BOB) Collaboration is based on an ESO Large Programme to study the occurrence rate, properties, and ultimately the origin of magnetic fields in massive stars. Methods: In the framework of this program, we carried out low-resolution spectropolarimetric observations of a large sample of massive stars using FORS 2

We present a quick overview of several examples that illustrate the application of quasar microlensing to various problems of great interest in Astrophysics and Cosmology. We start introducing the main tool for simulating quasar microlensing, the magnification map. Then, the flux magnification statistics obtained from the magnification maps is used