Context. This is the third paper in a series devoted to the WIde-field Nearby Galaxy-cluster Survey (WINGS). WINGS is a long-term project aimed at gathering wide-field, multiband imaging and spectroscopy of galaxies in a complete sample of 77 X-ray selected, nearby clusters (0.04 < z < 0.07) located far from the galactic plane (vertical bar b vertical bar >= 20 degrees). The main goal of this project is to establish a local reference sample for evolutionary studies of galaxies and galaxy clusters.

We present Hubble Space Telescope observations taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys Wide Field Channel of two fields near M32-between 4 and 6 kpc from the center of M31. The data cover a time baseline sufficient for the identification and characterization of 681 RR Lyrae variables of which 555 are ab-type and 126 are c-type. The mean magnitude of these stars is < V > = 25.29 +/- 0.05, where the uncertainty combines both the random and systematic errors. The location of the stars in the Bailey diagram and the ratio of c-type RR Lyraes to all types are both closer to RR Lyraes in Oosterhoff type I globular clusters in the Milky Way as compared with Oosterhoff II clusters. The mean periods of the ab-type and c-type RR Lyraes are < P(ab)> = 0.557 +/- 0.003 and < P(c)> = 0.327 +/- 0.003, respectively, where the uncertainties in each case represent the standard error of the mean. When the periods and amplitudes of the ab- type RR Lyraes in our sample are interpreted in terms of metallicity, we find the metallicity distribution function to be indistinguishable from a Gaussian with a peak at <[Fe/H]> = -1.50 +/- 0.02, where the quoted uncertainty is the standard error of the mean. Using a relation between RR Lyrae luminosity and metallicity along with a reddening of E(B-V) = 0.08 +/- 0.03, we find a distance modulus of (m-M)(0) = 24.46 +/- 0.11 for M31. We examine the radial metallicity gradient in the environs of M31 using published values for the bulge and halo of M31 as well as the abundances of its dwarf spheroidal companions and globular clusters. In this context, we conclude that the RR Lyraes in our two fields are more likely to be halo objects rather than associated with the bulge or disk of M31, in spite of the fact that they are located at 4-6 kpc in projected distance from the center.

We present the star formation rate (SFR) and starburst fraction (SBF) for a sample of field galaxies from the Inamori-Magellan Areal Camera and Spectrograph Cluster Building Survey intermediate-redshift cluster survey. We use [O II] and Spitzer 24 mu m fluxes to measure SFRs, and 24 mu m fluxes and H delta absorption to measure SBFs, for both our sample and a present-epoch field sample from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and Spitzer Wide-area Infrared Extragalactic survey. We find a precipitous decline in the SFR since z = 1, in agreement with other studies, as well as a corresponding rapid decline in the fraction of galaxies undergoing long-duration moderate-amplitude starbursts. We suggest that the change in both the rate and mode of star formation could result from the strong decrease since z = 1 of gas available for star formation.

The Exoplanets Forum 2008 meeting led to a book Exoplanet Community Report with about 180 authors from the exoplanet community. This book describes eight technique-oriented methods for detecting and characterizing exoplanets, with an emphasis on space missions. The topics are astrometry, optical imaging, infrared imaging, exozodiacal disks, microlensing, radial velocity, transits, and magnetospheric emission. Several of these techniques have counterparts in proposed space mission studies carried out under the Astrophysics Strategic Mission Concept Studies (ASMCS) program in 2008-9, and the exoplanet-related Astro2010 studies in 2009. The Forum meeting, through the vehicle of its resulting book, provides a snapshot of the science and potential missions for exoplanets during this period, and as such should provide a relevant reference for several years to come.

We observed two fields near M32 with the ACS/HRC (Program GO-10572, PI: T. Lauer) on board the Hubble Space Telescope, located at distances of about 1.8' and 5.4' (hereafter F1 and F2, respectively) from the center of M32. To obtain a very detailed and deep color-magnitude diagram (CMD) and to look for short period variability, we obtained time-series imaging of each field in 32-orbit-long exposures using the F435W (B) and F555W (V) filters, spanning a temporal range of 2 days per filter. We focus on our detection of variability on RR. Lyrae variable stars, which represents the only way to obtain information about the presence of a very old population (larger than 10 Gyr) in M32 from optical data. Here we present results obtained from the detection of 31 RR Lyrae in these fields: 17 in F1 and 14 in F2. We claim we detected 7(-3)(+4) RR Lyrae variables belonging to M32 in F1 thus indicating the presence of a metal-poor ancient population in M32.

We observed two fields near M32 with the Advanced Camera for Surveys/High Resolution Channel (ACS/HRC) on board the Hubble Space Telescope. The main field, F1, is 1'.8 from the center of M32; the second field, F2, constrains the M31 background, and is 5'.4 distant. Each field was observed for 16 orbits in each of the F435W (narrow B) and F555W (narrow V) filters. The duration of the observations allowed RR Lyrae stars to be detected. A population of RR Lyrae stars determined to belong to M32 would prove the existence of an ancient population in that galaxy, a subject of some debate. We detected 17 RR Lyrae variables in F1 and 14 in F2. A 1 sigma upper limit of 6 RR Lyrae variables belonging to M32 is inferred from these two fields alone. Use of our two ACS/WFC parallel fields provides better constraints on the M31 background, however, and implies that 7(-3)(+4) (68% confidence interval) RR Lyrae variables in F1 belong to M32. We have therefore found evidence for an ancient population in M32. It seems to be nearly indistinguishable from the ancient population of M31. The RR Lyrae stars in the F1 and F2 fields have indistinguishable mean V-band magnitudes, mean periods, distributions in the Bailey diagram, and ratios of RRc to RRtotal types. However, the color distributions in the two fields are different, with a population of red RRab variables in F1 not seen in F2. We suggest that these might be identified with the detected M32 RR Lyrae population, but the small number of stars rules out a definitive claim.

Massive quiescent galaxies at z > 1 have been found to have small physical sizes, and hence to be superdense. Several mechanisms, including minor mergers, have been proposed for increasing galaxy sizes from high-to low-z. We search for superdense massive galaxies in the WIde-field Nearby Galaxy-cluster Survey (WINGS) of X-ray selected galaxy clusters at 0.04 < z < 0.07. We discover a significant population of superdense massive galaxies with masses and sizes comparable to those observed at high redshift. They approximately represent 22% of all cluster galaxies more massive than 3 x 10(10) M(circle dot), are mostly S0 galaxies, have a median effective radius < Re > = 1.61 +/- 0.29 kpc, a median Sersic index < n > = 3.0 +/- 0.6, and very old stellar populations with a median mass-weighted age of 12.1 +/- 1.3 Gyr. We calculate a number density of 2.9 x 10(-2) Mpc(-3) for superdense galaxies in local clusters, and a hard lower limit of 1.3 x 10(-5) Mpc(-3) in the whole comoving volume between z = 0.04 and z = 0.07. We find a relation between mass, effective radius, and luminosity-weighted age in our cluster galaxies, which can mimic the claimed evolution of the radius with redshift, if not properly taken into account. We compare our data with spectroscopic high-z surveys and find that-when stellar masses are considered-there is consistency with the local WINGS galaxy sizes out to z similar to 2, while a discrepancy of a factor of 3 exists with the only spectroscopic z > 2 study. In contrast, there is strong evidence for a large evolution in radius for the most massive galaxies with M(*) > 4 x 10(11) M(circle dot) compared to similarly massive galaxies in WINGS, i.e., the brightest cluster galaxies.

We compare the apparent axial ratio distributions of the brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) and normal ellipticals (Es) in our sample of 75 galaxy clusters from the WIde-field Nearby Galaxy-cluster Survey (WINGS). Most BCGs in our clusters (69 per cent) are classified as cD galaxies. The sample of cDs has been completed by 14 additional cDs (non-BCGs) we found in our clusters. We deproject the apparent axial ratio distributions of Es, BCGs and cDs using a bivariate version of the Lucy rectification algorithm, whose results are supported by an independent Monte Carlo technique. Finally, we compare the intrinsic shape distribution of BCGs to the corresponding shape distribution of the central part of cluster-sized dark matter haloes extracted from the GIF2 Lambda cold dark matter (Lambda CDM) N-body simulations (Gao et al.).

We present NICMOS J(110) (rest-frame 1200-2100 angstrom) observations of the three z = 5.7 Ly alpha emitters discovered in the blind multislit spectroscopic survey by Martin et al. These images confirm the presence of the two sources that were previously only seen in spectroscopic observations. The third source, which is undetected in our J110 observations, has been detected in narrowband imaging of the Cosmic Origins Survey, so our non-detection implies a rest-frame equivalent width > 146 angstrom (3 sigma). The two J(110)-detected sources have more modest rest-frame equivalent widths of 30-40 angstrom, but all three are typical of high-redshift Lya emitters. In addition, the J110-detected sources have UV luminosities that are within a factor of 2 of L-UV*, and sizes that appear compact (r(hl) similar to 0.'' 15) in our NIC2 images-consistent with a redshift of 5.7. We use these UV-continuum and Lya measurements to estimate the i(775)-z(850) colors of these galaxies and show that at least one and possibly all three would be missed by the i-dropout Lyman break galaxy selection. These observations help demonstrate the utility of multislit narrowband spectroscopy as a technique for finding faint emission-line galaxies.

We present the WFC3 Infrared Spectroscopic Parallel (WISP) Survey. WISP is obtaining slitless, near-infrared grism spectroscopy of similar to 90 independent, high-latitude fields by observing in the pure-parallel mode with the Wide Field Camera Three on the Hubble Space Telescope for a total of similar to 250 orbits. Spectra are obtained with the G(102) (lambda = 0.8-1.17 mu m, R similar to 210) and G(141) grisms (lambda = 1.11-1.67 mu m, R similar to 130), together with direct imaging in the J and H bands (F110W and F140W, respectively). In the present paper, we present the first results from 19 WISP fields, covering approximately 63 arcmin(2). For typical exposure times (similar to 6400 s in G(102) and similar to 2700 s in G(141)), we reach 5 sigma detection limits for emission lines of f similar to 5 x 10(-17) erg s(-1) cm(-2) for compact objects. Typical direct imaging 5 sigma limits are 26.3 and 26.1 mag. (AB) in F110W and F140W, respectively. Restricting ourselves to the lines measured with the highest confidence, we present a list of 328 emission lines, in 229 objects, in a redshift range 0.3 < z < 3. The single-line emitters are likely to be a mix of H alpha and [O III]5007,4959 angstrom, with H alpha predominating. The overall surface density of high-confidence emission-line objects in our sample is approximately 4 per arcmin2. These first fields show high equivalent width sources, active galactic nucleus, and post-starburst galaxies. The median observed star formation rate (SFR) of our H alpha-selected sample is 4 M-circle dot yr(-1). At intermediate redshifts, we detect emission lines in galaxies as faint as H-140 similar to 25, or M-R < -19, and are sensitive to SFRs down to less than 1 M-circle dot yr(-1). The slitless grisms on WFC3 provide a unique opportunity to study the spectral properties of galaxies much fainter than L* at the peak of the galaxy assembly epoch.