We present integral field spectroscopy of X2127+119, the luminous X-ray binary in the globular cluster M15, obtained with INTEGRAL/WYFFOS on the William Herschel Telescope. We find that tomograms of HeIIλ4686 line profiles appear to be incompatible with the previously assumed view of X2127+119, in which the binary consists of a 1.4-Msolar neutron

The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) team has produced a foreground map that can account for most of the low-frequency Galactic microwave emission in the WMAP maps, tentatively interpreting it as synchrotron emission. Finkbeiner and collaborators have challenged these conclusions, arguing that the WMAP team's ``synchrotron'' template is

The Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) is one of the three science instruments for ESA's far infrared and submillimetre observatory Herschel. It employs two Ge:Ga photoconductor arrays (stressed and unstressed) with 16 × 25 pixels, each, and two filled Si bolometer arrays with 16 × 32 and 32 × 64 pixels, respectively, to perform

The β Cephei star κ Scorpii is known to be multiperiodic from old photometric observations. A main period of 4.8 hr was detected, and from a beat period of about 7 d a secondary period of 4.9 hr was calculated. These periods were also found in recently analyzed line profile data. In two short data sets (separated by 152 d) obtained by the star

The dwarf nova GW Librae (GW Lib) is the first cataclysmic variable (CV) discovered to have a primary in a white dwarf instability strip, making it the first multimode, non-radially pulsating star known to be accreting. The primaries of CVs, embedded in hot, bright accretion discs, are difficult to study directly. Applying the techniques of

The Local Group provides an interesting and representative sample of galaxies in the rest of the Universe. The high accuracy with which many problems can be addressed in Local Group galaxies is of paramount importance fur understanding galaxy formation and evolution. This contribution presents a short review of overall Local Group properties