Related papers: Mapping the Asymmetric Thick Disk: The Hercules Th…
We report on the discovery of an extended stellar halo surrounding the distant Galactic globular cluster NGC 5694, based on new deep (V ~ 24.5) wide-field (24' * 20') photometry acquired with VIMOS at VLT. Stars with colour and magnitude…
In hierarchical galaxy formation the stellar halos of galaxies are formed by the accretion of minor satellites and therefore contain valuable information about the (early) assembly process of galaxies. Our GHOSTS survey measures the stellar…
This study presents a tomographic survey of a subset of the outer halo (10-40 kpc) drawn from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 6. Halo substructure on spatial scales of $>3$ degrees is revealed as an excess in the local density of…
We study the orbital properties of stars in four (published) simulations of thick disks formed by: i) accretion from disrupted satellites, ii) heating of a pre-existing thin disk by a minor merger, iii) radial migration and iv) gas rich…
To explore the properties of extreme outer stellar disks, we obtained ultra-deep V and GALEX UV images of 4 dwarf irregular galaxies and one Blue Compact Dwarf galaxy and ultra-deep B images of 3 of these. Our V-band surface photometry…
Protoplanetary disks with large inner dust cavities are thought to host massive planetary or substellar companions. These disks show asymmetries and rings in the millimeter continuum, caused by dust trapping in pressure bumps, and…
We report the discovery of diffuse stellar substructure in the Milky Way's outer halo toward Bo\"otes, unveiled by deep imaging data of the Subaru/Hyper Suprime-Cam. This substructure is detected as an excess of faint main-sequence stars,…
The interstellar thick disks of galaxies serve as the interface between the thin star-forming disk, where feedback-driven outflows originate, and the distant halo, the repository for accreted gas. We present optical emission line…
(abridged) Infrared excesses associated with debris disk host stars detected so far peak at wavelengths around ~100{\mu}m or shorter. However, six out of 31 excess sources in the Herschel OTKP DUNES have been seen to show significant - and…
We have identified four circumstellar disks with a deficit of dust emission from their inner 15-50 AU. All four stars have F-G spectral type, and were uncovered as part of the Spitzer Space Telescope ``Cores to Disks'' Legacy Program…
We explore the elemental abundance features of metal-rich disk stars, highlighting the comparisons made with those of the recently revealed Galactic bulge stars. A similarity between two of the comparisons leads to a new theoretical picture…
We present an analysis of optical HST/STIS and HST/FOS spectroscopy of 6 blue stragglers found in the globular clusters M3, NGC6752 and NGC6397. These stars are a subsample of a set of ~50 blue stragglers and stars above the main sequence…
Although Blue Horizontal Branch (BHB) stars are commonly used to trace halo substructure, the stars bluer than (g-r)<-0.3 are ignored due to the difficulty in determining their absolute magnitudes. The blue extention of the horizontal…
We characterize substructure in the simulated stellar halos of Cooper et al. (2010) which were formed by the disruption of satellite galaxies within the cosmological N-body simulations of galactic halos of the Aquarius Project. These…
In the third Galactic quadrant (180 < l < 270) of the Milky Way, the Galactic thin disk exhibits a significant warp ---shown both by gas and young stars--- bending down a few kpc below the formal Galactic plane (b=0). This warp shows its…
We use the marginal stability condition for galactic disks and the stellar velocity dispersion data published by different authors to place upper limits on the disk local surface density at two radial scalelengths $R=2h$. Extrapolating…
Recent observations demonstrate that the thin and thick disks of the Galaxy have different chemical abundance trends and evolution timescales. The relative abundances of $\alpha$-elements in the thick Galactic disk are increased relative to…
Multicolor coronagraphic images of the circumstellar disk around HD141569A have been obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Advanced Camera for Surveys. B, V, and I images show that the disk's previously-described multiple-ring…
Hubble Space Telescope archive data are used to perform photometry of stars in seven fields at the center and periphery of the galaxy NGC2366. The variation of the number density of stars of various ages with galactocentric radius and along…
We have examined the stellar structure of 10 nearby, low stellar mass (10^6 to 6 x 10^7 Msolar) dwarf irregular galaxies by fitting ellipses as a function of surface brightness on ultra-deep V images. These are compared to far ultraviolet…