Using own ESO-MTI/FEROS observations for 31 Galactic O-type stars, we performed a detailed quantitative analysis of these stars in terms of fundamental parameters, and rotational and extra line-broadening velocities. In practice, effective temperatures and surface gravities were determined by means of the recently updated version of the FASTWIND

The Kepler satellite mission was designed to search for transiting exoplanets and delivers single band-pass light curves of a huge number of stars observed in the Cygnus-Lyra region. At the same time, it opens a new window for asteroseismology. In order to accomplish one of the required preconditions for the asteroseismic modelling of the stars

IPHAS (the INT/WTC Photometric Ha Survey of the Northern Galactic Plane, www.iphas.org) is a survey carried out, in H-α, r and i filters, with the Wide Field Camera on the Isaac Newton Telescope in La Palma. Besides the photometric survey, the IPHAS collaboration is conducting follow up spectroscopic observations of selected emission line objects

In the last years thoughtful quantitative analyses of extragalactic blue massive stars have shown not only that these studies are doable even at large distances (e.g. ˜2 Mpc away), but also essential for a better understanding of host galaxies and stellar evolution, in environments with different metallicities. Carrying out a systematic analysis is

We present an analysis of Planck satellite data on the Coma cluster observed via the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect. Thanks to its great sensitivity, Planck is able, for the first time, to detect SZ emission up to r ≈ 3 × R500. We test previously proposed spherically symmetric models for the pressure distribution in clusters against the azimuthally

Using precise full-sky observations from Planck, and applying several methods of component separation, we identify and characterise the emission from the Galactic "haze" at microwave wavelengths. The haze is a distinct component of diffuse Galactic emission, roughly centered on the Galactic centre, and extends to | b | ~ 35-50° in Galactic latitude