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Recent results indicate that the compact lenticular galaxy NGC 1277 in the Perseus Cluster contains a black hole of approximately 10 billion solar masses. This far exceeds the expected mass of the central black hole in a galaxy of the…
Evidence of a supernova event, discussed in Wallner et al., was discovered in the deep-sea crusts with two signals dating back to 2-3 and 7-9 Myr ago. In this contribution, we place constraints on the birth-site of the supernova progenitors…
As starburst galaxies show a star formation rate up to several hundred times larger than the one in a typical galaxy, the expected supernova rate is higher than average. This in turn implies a high rate of long gamma ray bursts (GRBs),…
We present 118 new optical redshifts for galaxies in 12 clusters in the Horologium-Reticulum supercluster (HRS) of galaxies. For 76 galaxies, the data were obtained with the Dual Beam Spectrograph on the 2.3m telescope of the Australian…
We have used the Very Long Baseline Array to measure the trigonometric parallax of several member stars of the Orion Nebula Cluster showing non-thermal radio emission. We have determined the distance to the cluster to be 414 +/- 7 pc. Our…
SN1994D of type Ia has been suspected not to fit into the relation between decline rate, colour, and brightness. However, an individual distance of its host galaxy, NGC4526, other than that of the Virgo cluster, has not yet been published.…
A handful of nearby supernovae (SNe) with visual extinctions of a few magnitudes have recently been discovered. However, an undiscovered population of much more highly extinguished (A(V) > 10) core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) is likely to…
We review the progress of research on intracluster planetary nebulae (IPN). In the past five years, hundreds of IPN candidates have been detected in the Virgo and Fornax galaxy clusters and searches are also underway in poorer galaxy…
1. We find that any two distance moduli measurements for the same galaxy differ from each other by 2.07 times the reported one sigma uncertainty on average. 2. This average difference between distance moduli measurements of the same galaxy…
Observations suggest that high-redshift galaxies are either very dusty or essentially dust free. The evolution from one regime to the other must also be very fast, since evolved and dusty galaxies show up at redshifts corresponding to a…
Novae are the observable outcome of a transient thermonuclear runaway on the surface of an accreting white dwarf in a close binary system. Their high peak luminosity renders them visible in galaxies out beyond the distance of the Virgo…
We present the discovery of a new dwarf galaxy, Perseus I/Andromeda XXXIII, found in the vicinity of Andromeda (M31) in stacked imaging data from the Pan-STARRS1 3{\pi} survey. Located 27.9{\deg} away from M31, Perseus I has a heliocentric…
We study iPTF14hls, a luminous and extraordinary long-lived Type II supernova, which lately has attracted much attention and disparate interpretation. We present new optical photometry that extends the light curves until more than 3 yr past…
We take a fresh look at the determination of distances and velocities of neutron stars. The conversion of a parallax measurement into a distance, or distance probability distribution, has led to a debate quite similar to the one involving…
We examine the possibility that very massive stars greatly exceeding the commonly adopted stellar mass limit of 150 Msun may be present in young star clusters in the local universe. We identify ten candidate clusters, some of which may host…
We examine the possibility that a nearby supernova explosion could have caused one or more of the mass extinctions identified by palaeontologists. We discuss the likely rate of such events in the light of the recent identification of…
Planetary Nebulae (PN) emit enormous amount of energy in several emission lines. Measuring the line-flux for PNe in a given stellar population, the Planetary Nebula Luminosity Function (PNLF) can be compiled. Surveys of PNe revealed that…
We investigate the effect of gravitational lensing on the farthest known supernova, SN1997ff. The SN was found at z~1.7 in the Hubble Deep Field North and is most likely of Type Ia. Due to our poor knowledge of the properties of the lensing…
We report the discovery of a redshift 1.71 supernova in the GOODS North field. The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) ACS spectrum has almost negligible contamination from the host or neighboring galaxies. Although the rest frame sampled range is…
Supernovae are bright luminous stellar objects observable up to redshifts close to z~1. They are used to probe the geometry of the Universe and its expansion rate by applying different methods. In this article, I review various approaches…