We present near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopic observations of 28 X-ray and mid-infrared selected sources at a median redshift of z ˜ 0.8 in the Extended Groth Strip (EGS). To date this is the largest compilation of NIR spectra of active galactic nuclei (AGN) at this redshift. The data were obtained using the multi-object spectroscopic mode of the

Context. It is generally accepted that the presence of a giant planet is strongly dependent on the stellar metallicity. A stellar mass dependence has also been investigated, but this dependence does not seem as strong as the metallicity dependence. Even for metallicity, however, the exact form of the correlation has not been established. Aims: In

Stars more massive than about 3M⊙ are known to experience loops in the HR diagram during their core helium burning phase. Except for very massive stars the extent of their loops increases with the stellar mass. We show that a stellar evolution track for a 8M⊙ star computed with the new solar abundances [2] shows only a very tiny loop located near

While collisionally excited lines in H ii regions allow one to easily probe the chemical composition of the interstellar medium in galaxies, the possible presence of important temperature fluctuations casts some doubt on the derived abundances. To provide new insights into this question, we have carried out a detailed study of a giant H ii region

Aims: The transiting planet WASP-12 b was identified as a potential target for transit-timing studies because a departure from a linear ephemeris has been reported in the literature. Such deviations could be caused by an additional planet in the system. We attempt to confirm the claimed variations in transit timing and interpret their origin

We present a study of the morphology, kinematics and star formation of a sample of 27 isolated spiral galaxies in the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S4G), on the basis of Hα Fabry-Perot (FP) data from the GHαFaS instrument at the William Herschel Telescope (WHT) in La Palma, complemented with images at 3.6 micron from the Spitzer