Related papers: Westerlund 1 as a Template for Massive Star Evolut…
We search for massive and compact galaxies (superdense galaxies, hereafter SDGs) at z=0.03-0.11 in the Padova-Millennium Galaxy and Group Catalogue, a spectroscopically complete sample representative of the local Universe general field…
Several decades of observations of the most massive and most luminous stars have revealed a complex upper HR Diagram, shaped by mass loss, and inhabited by a variety of evolved stars exhibiting the consequences of their mass loss histories.…
During the last decade, hundreds of young massive cluster candidates have been detected in the disk of the Milky Way. We investigate one of these candidates, Mercer 81, which was discovered through a systematic search for stellar…
We present preliminary results of the first near-infrared variability study of the Arches cluster, using adaptive optics data from NIRI/Gemini and NACO/VLT. The goal is to discover eclipsing binaries in this young (2.5 $\pm$ 0.5 Myr),…
We review the properties of massive star evolution in different environments, where the major environmental factor is metallicity. Comparisons between evolutionary models and observations of massive OB, WR stars and related objects are…
The recent discovery of microlensing of stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud has excited much interest in the nature of the lensing population. Detailed analyses indicate that the mass of these objects ranges from 0.3-0.8 solar masses,…
Galaxy clusters are the most massive gravitationally bound structures in the universe and serve as tracers of the assembly of large-scale structure. Studying their progenitors, proto-clusters, sheds light on the earliest stages of cluster…
We show the results of deep V and I HST photometry of 6 rich star clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud with different ages and metallicities. The number of stars with measured magnitudes in each cluster varies from about 3000 to 10000. We…
Using three newly identified galaxy clusters at z~1 (photometric redshift) we measure the evolution of the galaxies within clusters from high redshift to the present day by studying the growth of the red cluster sequence. The clusters are…
As part of our ongoing Wolf-Rayet (WR) Magellanic Cloud survey, we have discovered 13 new WRs. However, the most exciting outcome of our survey is not the number of new WRs, but their unique characteristics. Eight of our discoveries appear…
We present V and I photometry of the resolved stars in the most metal-deficient blue compact dwarf galaxy known, I Zw 18 (Zsun/50), using Hubble Space Telescope/Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) images, the deepest ones ever obtained for…
We present a grid of stellar models at super-solar metallicity (Z = 0.020) extending the previous grids of Geneva models at solar and sub-solar metallicities. A metallicity of Z = 0.020 was chosen to match that of the inner Galactic disk. A…
An increasing number of non-terminal giant eruptions are being observed by modern supernova and transient surveys. But very little is known about the origin of these giant eruptions and their progenitors, many of which are presumably very…
We present an updated catalog of 1300 objects in the field of M31, including 670 likely star clusters of various types. Archival images were inspected to confirm cluster classifications where possible, but most of the classifications were…
The Humphreys-Davidson (HD) limit empirically defines a region of high luminosities (log L > 5.5) and low effective temperatures (T < 20kK) on the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram in which hardly any supergiant stars are observed. Attempts to…
The diagnostic age versus mass-to-light ratio diagram is often used in attempts to constrain the shape of the stellar initial mass function (IMF), and the potential longevity of extragalactic young to intermediate-age massive star clusters.…
The precise definition of the lower mass limit of red supergiant stars (RSGs) is an open question in astrophysics and does not attract too much attention. Here we assemble a spectroscopic evolved cool star sample with 6,602 targets,…
[Abridged] We have studied the optical spectra of 28 O- and early B-type stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud, 22 of which are associated with the young star-forming region N11. Stellar parameters are determined using an automated fitting…
We present the results of current observations of the young compact cluster of massive stars Westerlund 2 with the Mikhail Pavlinsky ART-XC telescope aboard the Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma (SRG) observatory which we analysed together with the…
Massive clusters in our Galaxy are an ideal testbed to investigate the properties and evolution of high mass stars. They provide statistically significant samples of massive stars of uniform ages. To accurately determine the intrinsic…