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ESO 381-47 is an early type galaxy with an extended HI disk. GALEX and very deep optical images reveal a distinct stellar ring far outside the optical body with a diameter of ~30 kpc, which has undergone recent star formation at 1.8 x 10^-4 Msun/yr/kpc^-2, consistent with other new results which detect low level star formation below the traditional Kennicutt relation in the outer parts of spiral galaxies. The morphology of this galaxy resembles the recently identified class of ultraviolet objects called extended ultraviolet disks, or XUV-disks. New HI observations of this galaxy taken at the ATCA and in the CnB array at the VLA show that the cold gas lies in an extended (diameter ~90 kpc) ring around the central S0 galaxy. The HI data cube can be well modeled by a warped ring. The faint ionized gas in the inner parts of the galaxy is kinematically decoupled from the stars and instead appears to exhibit velocities consistent with the rotation of the HI ring at larger radius. The peak of the stellar ring, as seen in the optical and UV, is slightly displaced to the inside relative to the peak of the HI ring. We discuss the manner in which this offset could be caused by the propagation of a radial density wave through an existing stellar disk, perhaps triggered by a galaxy collision at the center of the disk, or possibly due to a spiral density wave set up at early times in a disk too hot to form a stellar bar. Gas accretion and resonance effects due to a bar which has since dissolved are also considered to explain the presence of the star forming ring seen in the GALEX and deep optical data., Comment: 48 pages, 16 figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal

The focus of current research in galaxy evolution has increasingly turned to understanding the effect that mergers have on the evolution of systems on the red sequence. For those interactions purported to occur dissipationlessly (so called "dry mergers"), it would appear that the role of gas is minimal. However, if these mergers are not completely dry, then even low levels of gas may be detectable. The purpose of our study is to test whether early type galaxies with HI in or around them, or "wet" ellipticals, would have been selected as dry mergers by the criteria in van Dokkum (2005, AJ, 130, 2647). To that end, we examine a sample of 20 early types from the HI Rogues Gallery with neutral hydrogen in their immediate environs. Of these, the 15 brightest and reddest galaxies match the optical dry merger criteria, but in each case, the presence of HI means that they are not truly dry., Comment: 8 pages plus 1 table and 5 figures; accepted for publication in AJ

Using the NH\3 (6,6) transition, which samples dense ($\sim 10^{5}$) molecular gas with an energy above ground of 412 K, we find hot gas at high velocities (--142 to --210 km s$^{-1}$) associated with the central 2 pc of the Galactic center. This material may be either infalling gas due to shocks or tidal stripping, or possibly gas swept from the nuclear region. We identify two high-velocity features, which we call the Southern Runner and the Cap, and correlate these features with others detected in various molecular observations of the Galactic center. The characteristic linewidths of the Southern Runner and Cap, 10 -- 15 \kms, are similar to those of other hot Galactic center clouds. The estimated H$_{2}$ masses of these clouds are 4$\times 10^{3}$ M$\sol$ and 2$\times 10^{3}$ M$\sol$, consistent with the masses of the western streamer and northern ridge, NH\3 (6,6) emission features detected within the central 10 pc at lower velocities. Three possible explanations for this emission are discussed assuming that they lie at the Galactic center, including sweeping by the supernova remnant Sgr A East, infall and/or shock from the circumnuclear disk (CND), and stripping from the central rotating low-velocity NH\3 (6,6) cloud., Comment: 28 pages including 7 figures; accepted for publication in ApJ

We revisit the possibility of detecting an extrasolar planet around a background star as it crosses the fold caustic of a foreground binary lens. During such an event, the planet's flux can be magnified by a factor of ~100 or more. The detectability of the planet depends strongly on the orientation of its orbit relative to the caustic. If the source star is inside the inter-caustic region, detecting the caustic-crossing planet is difficult against the magnified flux of its parent star. In the more favorable configuration, when the star is outside the inter-caustic region when the planet crosses the caustic, a close-in Jupiter-like planet around a Sun-like star at a distance of 8 kpc is detectable in 8-minute integrations with a 10m telescope at maximal S/N~15 for phase angle ~10 degrees. In this example, we find further that the presence of methane, at its measured abundance in Jupiter, and/or water, sodium and potassium, at the abundances expected in theoretical atmosphere models of close-in Jupiters, could be inferred from a non-detection of the planet in strong broad absorption bands at 0.6-1.4 microns caused by these compounds, accompanied by a S/N~10 detection in adjacent bands. We conclude that future generations of large telescopes might be able to probe the composition of the atmospheres of distant extrasolar planets., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ, 9 emulateapj pages with 8 figures. Content and references have been added to original submission