Most bright galaxies are spirals, like our own, and in the nearby well-studied cases they reveal the beautiful and intricate grand-design spiral patterns that are both familiar and appealing (e.g., Sandage & Tammann 1981). At the centre of a few out of every hundred spirals there is also an extremely bright point of light. This point can be so bright that it can outshine the entire stellar outp...

This contribution reviews the properties of nuclear activity in nearby galaxies, with emphasis on results obtained from current optical surveys and multiwavelength follow-up observations thereof.

it is inferred from the symmetrical and luminous x-ray emission of fossil groups that they are mature, relaxed galaxy systems. cosmological simulations and observations focusing on their dark halo and inter-galactic medium properties confirm their early formation. recent photometric observations suggest that, unlike the majority of non-fossil brightest group galaxies (bggs), the central early-t...

Hubble Space Telescope revealed a dicothomy in the central surface brightness profiles of early-type galaxies, that subsequently have been grouped into two families: core, boxy, anisotropic systems and cuspy (”power law”), disky, rotating ones. Here we investigate whether a dicothomy is present also in the X-ray properties of the two families. We consider both their total soft emission (LSX,tot...

Globular clusters in galaxies have a mutual feedback with the environment, which is tuned by their dynamical evolution. This feedback may be the explanation of various features of both the globular cluster system and the host galaxy. Relevant examples of these are the radial distribution of globulars and the violent initial activity of galaxies as AGN.

It is inferred from the symmetrical and luminous X-ray emission of fossil groups that they are mature, relaxed galaxy systems. Cosmological simulations and observations focusing on their dark halo and inter-galactic medium properties confirm their early formation. Recent photometric observations suggest that, unlike the majority of non-fossil brightest group galaxies (BGGs), the central early-t...