We present UBVI CCD photometry of the stellar contents and globular cluster(GC) candidates in the spiral galaxy NGC 300 in the Sculptor group. Color-magnitude diagrams for 18 OB associations having more than 30 member stars are presented. The slope of the initial mass function for the bright stars in NGC 300 is estimated to be Γ = -2.6 ± 0.3. Assuming the distance to NGC 300 of (m - M)o = 26.53 ± 0.07, the mean absolute magnitude of three brightest blue stars is obtained to be < MvBSG (3) > = -8.95 mag. We have performed search for GCs in NGC 300 and have found 17 GC candidates in this galaxy. Some characteristics of these GC candidates are discussed.

We have studied the long-term X-ray light curve (2-10 keV) of the luminous Seyfert 1 galaxy MCG-2-58-22 by compiling data, from various X-ray satellites, which together cover more than 20 years. We have found two distinct types of time variations in the light curve. One is a gradual and secular decrease of the X-ray flux, and the other is the episodic increase of X-ray flux (or flare) by a factor of 2-4 compared with the level expected from the secular variation. We detected 3 such flares in total; a representative duration for the flares is ~2 years, with intervening quiescent intervals lasting ~6-8 years. We discuss a few possible origins for these variabilities. Though a standard disk instability theory may explain the displayed time variability in the X-ray light curve, the subsequent accretions of stellar debris, from a tidal disruption event caused by a supermassive black hole in MCG-2-58-22, cannot be ruled out as an alternative explanation.

We report results from an analysis of the X-ray archival data on MCG-2-58-22 obtained with Ginga, ROSAT and ASCA. By analyzing both short- and long-term light curves, we find clear time variations, ranging widely from, ~10 3 s to more than several years, in the X-ray energy range 0.1 - 10 keV. In addition, a flare is detected in 1991, overlaid on a gradual, secular flux decrease from 1979 to 1993; this flare has a time scale of about 1 year, and the X-ray flux increased by at least a factor of 3. The implications of these observational results are discussed in terms of accretion flow dynamics near a supermassive black hole.

We investigate dynamical evolution of globular clusters with multi-mass component under the Galactic tidal field. We compare the results with our previous work which considered the cases of single-mass component m the globular clusters. We find the followings: 1) The general evolutions are similar to the cases of single-mass component. 2) There is no evidence for dependence on the orbital phase of the cluster as in the case of single-mass component. 3) The escape rate in multi-mass models is larger than that in the single-mass models. 4) The mass-function depends on radius more sensitively in anisotropic models than in isotropic models.

We have identified the candidates for the primordial galaxies in the process of formation in the Hubble Deep Field (hereafter HDF). In order to select these objects we have removed objects brighter than 29-th magnitude in the HDF images and smoothed the maps with the Gaussian filters with the FWHM of 0.8' and 4' to obtain the difference maps. This has enabled us to find. very faint diffuse structures close to the sky level. Peaks are identified in the difference map for each of three HDF chips with three filters (F450W, F606W, and F814W). They have the apparent AB magnitudes typically between 29 and 31. The objects identified in different wavelengths filters have a strong cross-correlations. The correlation lengths are about 0.8'. This means that an object found in one filter can be also found as a peak within 0.8' separation in another filter, thus telling the reality of the identified objects. This angular scale is also the size of the primordial galaxies which have strong color fluctuations on their surfaces. Their large-scale distribution quite resembles that of nearby galaxies, supporting the idea that these objects are ancestors of the present bright galaxies forming at statistically high density regions. Inspections on individual objects show that these primordial galaxy candidates have tiny multiple glares embedded in diffuse backgrounds. Their radial light distributions are quite different from that of nearby bright galaxies. We may be now looking at the epoch of galaxy formation.