Related papers: HD 144812: A transition-phase massive star in a bi…
We aim to combine asteroseismology, spectroscopy, and evolutionary models to establish a comprehensive picture of the evolution of Galactic blue supergiant stars (BSG). To start such an investigation, we selected three BSG candidates for…
We present near-infrared $JHK_s$ photometry and light curves of the candidate magnetic white dwarf+brown dwarf binary SDSS J121209.31+013627.7 and report on the detection of near-infrared excess and variability in the $K_s-$band. The…
The hot star HDE 326823 is a candidate transition-phase object that is evolving into a nitrogen-enriched Wolf-Rayet star. It is also a known low-amplitude, photometric variable with a 6.123 d period. We present new, high and moderate…
We present a 3-5um LBT/MMT adaptive optics imaging study of three Upper Scorpius stars with brown dwarf (BD) companions with very low-masses/mass ratios (M_BD < 25M_Jup; M_BD / M_star ~ 1-2%), and wide separations (300-700 AU): GSC 06214,…
We present WSRT observations of the neutral hydrogen in the nearby radio galaxy B2 0648+27. In emission, we detect a very large amount of HI (M_HI = 1.1 x 10^10 M_sun) that is distributed in a very extended disk, or ring-like structure, of…
We report high precision, high cadence photometric measurements of the star HD 209458, which is known from radial velocity measurements to have a planetary mass companion in a close orbit. We detect two separate transit events at times that…
The eclipsing and strongly interacting binary star system R Arae (HD149730) is in a very active and very short-lived stage of its evolution. R Ara consists of a B9V primary and an unknown secondary. We have collected the International…
J01020100-7122208 is a star whose origin and nature still challenges us. It was first believed to be a yellow super giant ejected from the Small Magellanic Cloud, but it was more recently claimed to be a red giant accelerated by the Milky…
IGR J16493-4348 is a supergiant high mass X-ray binary discovered by INTEGRAL in 2004. The source is detected at a significance level of $\sim21$ standard deviations in the Swift-BAT survey data collected during the first 54 months of the…
The search for exoplanets has revealed a diversity of planetary system architectures, the vast majority of which diverge significantly from the template of the solar system. In particular, giant planets beyond the snow line are relatively…
We report the serendipitous discovery from WASP archive photometry of a binary star in which an apparently normal A-type star (J0247-25A) eclipses a smaller, hotter subdwarf star (J0247-25B). The kinematics of J0247-25A show that it is a…
New diffraction-limited speckle images of the Red Rectangle in the wavelength range 2.1--3.3 microns with angular resolutions of 44--68 mas and previous speckle images at 0.7--2.2 microns revealed well-resolved bright bipolar outflow lobes…
Barium (Ba), CH, and extrinsic or Tc-poor S-type stars are evolved low- and intermediate-mass stars that show enhancement of slow-neutron-capture-process elements on their surface, an indication of mass accretion from a former asymptotic…
The dynamics of planetesimals in the circumbinary debris disc of the quadruple star system HD 98800 are investigated. Evolving a spherical shell of test particles from a million years ago to the present day indicates that both coplanar and…
Based on high-resolution observations (R=60000 and 75000), we have studied the optical spectral variability of the star BD+48 1220 (IRAS05040+4820). We have measured the equivalent widths of numerous absorption lines of neutral atoms and…
The discovery of hypervelocity binary stars (HVBs) in the Galactic halo would provide definite evidence of the existence of a massive black hole companion to Sgr A*. Here we use an hybrid approach to compute the rate of ejection and the…
We report the results of a comprehensive study of the spectroscopic binary (SB2) system HD 34736 hosting two chemically peculiar (CP) late B-type stars. Using new and archival observational data, we characterise the system and its…
We present the first observation of planet-induced stellar X-ray activity, identified for the HD 179949 system, using Chandra / ACIS-S. The HD 179949 system consists of a close-in giant planet orbiting an F9V star. Previous ground-based…
The evolution of massive stars surviving the red supergiant (RSG) stage remains unexplored due to the rarity of such objects. The yellow hypergiants (YHGs) appear to be the warm counterparts of post-RSG classes located near the…
The X-ray source RX J0648.0-4418 is the only confirmed binary system in which a compact object, most likely a massive white dwarf, accretes from a hot subdwarf companion, the bright sdO star HD 49798. The X-ray emission from this system is…