One of the most promising explanations for the origin of the billion solar mass black holes (BHs) inferred to power quasars at redshifts z >= 6 is that supermassive stars (SMSs) with masses >=104Msolar collapse to form the seed BHs from which they grow. Here we review recent theoretical advances which provide support for this scenario. Firstly

The GREGOR Fabry-Pérot Interferometer (GFPI) is one of three first-light instruments of the German 1.5-meter GREGOR solar telescope at the Observatorio del Teide, Tenerife, Spain. The GFPI allows fast narrow-band imaging and post-factum image restoration. The retrieved physical parameters will be a fundamental building block for understanding the

One of the main problems facing development teams working on instrument control systems consists on the need to access mechanisms which are not available until well into the integration phase. The need to work with real hardware creates additional problems like, among others: certain faults cannot be tested due to the possibility of hardware damage

We investigate the influence of the geometry of the solar filament magnetic structure on the large-amplitude longitudinal oscillations. A representative filament flux tube is modeled as composed of a cool thread centered in a dipped part with hot coronal regions on either side. We have found the normal modes of the system and establish that the

We obtain constraints on cosmological parameters from the spherically averaged redshift-space correlation function of the CMASS Data Release 9 (DR9) sample of the Baryonic Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). We combine this information with additional data from recent cosmic microwave background (CMB), supernova and baryon acoustic oscillation

We present an analysis of a high-resolution (R ˜ 50 000) optical spectrum of the central region of the protoplanetary nebula CRL 2688. This object is thought to have recently moved off the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) and displays abundance patterns of CNO and heavy elements that can provide us with important clues to help us understand the