We use Very Large Telescope (VLT)/Fibre Large Array Multi Element Spectrograph (FLAMES) intermediate‐resolution (R∼ 6500) spectra of individual red giant branch stars in the near‐infrared Ca ii triplet (CaT) region to investigate the wide‐area metallicity properties and internal kinematics of the Sextans dwarf spheroidal galaxy (dSph). Our final sample consists of 174 probable members of Sextans with accurate line‐of‐sight velocities (±2 km s−1) and CaT [Fe/H] measurements (±0.2 dex). We use the Mg i line at 8806.8 Å as an empirical discriminator for distinguishing between probable members of the dSph (giant stars) and probable Galactic contaminants (dwarf stars). Sextans shows a similar chemodynamical behaviour to other Milky Way dSphs, with its central regions being more metal rich than the outer parts and with the more metal‐rich stars displaying colder kinematics than the more metal‐poor stars. Hints of a velocity gradient are found along the projected major axis and along an axis at position angle (PA) = 191°, however, a larger and more spatially extended sample may be necessary to pin down the amplitude and direction of this gradient. We detect a cold kinematic substructure at the centre of Sextans, consistent with being the remnant of a disrupted very metal poor stellar cluster. We derive the most extended line‐of‐sight velocity dispersion profile for Sextans, out to a projected radius of 16. From Jeans modelling of the observed line‐of‐sight velocity dispersion profile we find that this is consistent with both a cored dark matter halo with large core radius and cuspy halo with low concentration. The mass within the last measured point is in the range 2–4 × 108 M⊙, giving very large mass‐to‐light ratios, from 460 to 920 (M/L)V, ⊙.

Aims. We present the Second Palermo Swift-BAT hard X-ray catalogue obtained by analysing data acquired in the first 54 months of the Swift mission. Methods. Using our software dedicated to the analysis of data from coded mask telescopes, we analysed the BAT survey data in three energy bands (15-30 keV, 15-70 keV, 15-150 keV), obtaining a list of 1256 detections above a significance threshold of 4.8 standard deviations. The identification of the source counterparts is pursued using two strategies: the analysis of field observations of soft X-ray instruments and cross-correlation of our catalogue with source databases. Results. The survey covers 50% of the sky to a 15-150 keV flux limit of 1.0 × 10 −11 erg cm −2 s −1 and 9.2 × 10 −12 erg cm −2 s −1 for |b| < 10 • and |b| > 10 • , respectively. The Second Palermo Swift-BAT hard X-ray catalogue includes 1079 (∼86%) hard X-ray sources with an associated counterpart (26 with a double association and 2 with a triple association) and 177 BAT excesses (∼14%) that still lack a counterpart. The distribution of the BAT sources among the different object classes consists of ∼19% Galactic sources, ∼57% extragalactic sources, and ∼10% sources with a counterpart at softer energies whose nature has not yet been determined. About half of the BAT associated sources lack a counterpart in the ROSAT catalogues. This suggests that either moderate or strong absorption may be preventing their detection in the ROSAT energy band. The comparison of our BAT catalogue with the Fermi Large Area Telescope First Source Catalogue identifies 59 BAT/Fermi correspondences: 48 blazars, 3 Seyfert galaxies, 1 interacting galaxy, 3 high mass X-ray binaries, and 4 pulsars/supernova remnants. This small number of correspondences indicates that different populations make the sky shine in these two different energy bands.

Hard X-ray surveys performed by the INTEGRAL satellite have discovered a conspicuous fraction (up to 30%) of unidentified objects among the detected sources. Here we continue our program of identification of these objects by (i) selecting probable optical candidates by means of positional cross-correlation of the INTEGRAL detections with soft X-ray, radio, and/or optical archives and (ii) performing optical spectroscopy on them. As a result, we pinpointed and identified, or more accurately characterized, 44 definite or likely counterparts of INTEGRAL sources. Among them, 32 are active galactic nuclei (AGNs; 18 with broad emission lines, 13 with narrow emission lines only, and one X-ray bright, optically normal galaxy) with redshift 0.019 < z < 0.6058, 6 cataclysmic variables (CVs), 5 high-mass X-ray binaries (2 of which in the Small Magellanic Cloud), and 1 low-mass X-ray binary. This was achieved by using 7 telescopes of various sizes and archival data from two online spectroscopic surveys. The main physical parameters of these hard X-ray sources were also determined using the multiwavelength information available in the literature. In general, AGNs are the most abundant population among hard X-ray objects, and our results confirm the tendency of finding AGNs more frequently than any other type of hard X-ray emitting object among unidentified INTEGRAL sources when optical spectroscopy is used as an identification tool. Moreover, the deeper sensitivity of the more recent INTEGRAL surveys enables one to begin detecting hard X-ray emission above 20 keV from sources such as LINER-type AGNs and non-magnetic CVs.