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We have found that the bulge of the large, nearby Sb galaxy NGC 7331 rotates retrograde to its disk. Analysis of spectra in the region of the near-IR Ca II triplet along the major axis shows that, in the radial range between 5 ′′ and ∼20 ′′ , the line of sight velocity distribution of the absorption lines is has two distinct peaks, and can be decomposed into a fast-rotating component with v/σ > 3, and a slower rotating, retrograde component with v/σ ∼ 1 -1.5. The radial surface brightness profile of the counter-rotating component follows that of the bulge, obtained from a 2-dimensional bulge-disk decomposition of a near-infrared K-band image, while the fast rotating component follows the disk. At the radius where the disk starts to dominate the isophotes change from being considerably boxy to very disky.Although a number of spiral galaxies have been found that contain cold, couterrotating disk, this is the first galaxy known to have a boxy, probably triaxial, fairly warm, counter-rotating component, which is dominating in the central regions. If it is a bar seen end-on, this bar has to be thicker than the disk. We find that NGC 7331, even though it is a fairly early-type spiral, does not have a conventional, co-rotating bulge.

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Wavelengths and identifications of the near ultraviolet solar spectrum are presented. The data were obtained during the rocket flight of an interferometer spectrograph with a spectral resolution of 0.03 A.

This paper presents observations with intermediate spectral and spatial resolution along the major and minor axes of the starburst galaxy NGC 253. The spectral ranges analyzed are in the region of the stellar MgIb (∼ 5175Å), the near IR CaII triplet (∼ 8550Å) absorption features, and the region of the Hα emission line. We have compared the shape of the stellar features with those of reference stars and determined the line-of-sight velocity distribution (LOSVD) of the stellar component by using a two-dimensional Gaussian decomposition algorithm, and show for the first time the rotation curve of the stellar component in NGC 253. Comparing the recesion velocity curves of the gas and stars, it is seen that the stellar component has a decoupled kinematics respect to the gas, displaying a shollower velocity gradient and larger velocity dispersion that the gas in the inner regions. The minor axis kinematics together with the kinematics across the central 40 ′′ along the major axis, suggest the presence of a rotating body with a kinematically misaligned axis respect to the main disk of the galaxy. The asymmetries in the LOSVD along the minor axis together with the steep velocity gradient of the gaseous component suggest a merger scenario to explain the these kinematically signatures.The enclosed mass in the central regions is computed to be (2.4±0.5) × 10 7 M ⊙ for a radius of r = 0.7 ′′ (10 pc). A double gaseous component in the central 6 arcsecs is detected from the [SIII] λ 9069Å data along the minor axis; this seems to be the signature of a superbubble due to a supernova rate of 0.05 yr −1 .