Related papers: Stellar models: firm evidence, open questions and …
This review concentrates almost entirely on globular star clusters. It emphasises the increasing realisation that few of the traditional problems of star cluster astronomy can be studied in isolation: the influence of the Galaxy affects…
The stellar masses, mean ages, metallicities, and star formation histories of galaxies are now commonly estimated via stellar population synthesis (SPS) techniques. SPS relies on stellar evolution calculations from the main sequence to…
Our understanding of the properties and demographics of exoplanets critically relies on our ability to determine fundamental properties of their host stars. The advent of Gaia and large spectroscopic surveys has now made it in principle…
Studies of the resolved stellar populations in nearby systems are crucial to understand galaxy evolution. Here, we summarize how the interpretation of the colour-magnitude diagrams of field stars in late-type dwarfs inside and outside the…
While the basic properties of AGB stellar evolution are well established, comprehensive observational studies of late phases of intermediate mass stars continue to generate puzzles for current stellar models. Here, I review current…
The stellar astronomy has always been considered the fundamental source of knowledge about the basic building blocks of the universe - the stars. It has proved correctness of many physical theories - like e.g. the idea of nuclear fusion in…
We show that different stellar-mass estimation methods yield overall mass scales that disagree by factors up to ~2 for the z=0 galaxy population, and more importantly, relative mass scales that sometimes disagree by factors >~3 between…
The determination of stellar populations of galaxies are important for studying the formation and evolution of galaxies, because all galaxies contain many stars and they evolve with galaxies. Spectra data are usually used to determine the…
We provide a status report on the determination of stellar ages from asteroseismology for stars of various masses and evolutionary stages. The ability to deduce the ages of stars with a relative precision of typically 10 to 20% is a unique…
Star formation lies at the center of a web of processes that drive cosmic evolution: generation of radiant energy, synthesis of elements, formation of planets, and development of life. Decades of observations have yielded a variety of…
Stars and planets are the fundamental objects of the Universe. Their formation processes, though related, may differ in important ways. Stars almost certainly form from gravitational collapse and probably have formed this way since the…
Massive stars have a profound influence on the Universe, but their formation remains poorly understood. We review the current status of observational and theoretical research in this field, describing the various stages of an evolutionary…
Ages are key to truly understand a large plethora of astrophysical phenomena. On the other hand, stellar clusters are open windows to understand stellar evolution, specifically, the change with time and mass of different stellar properties.…
Stellar clusters are thought to be the simplest stellar systems and the closest observational counterparts to theoretical models for single stellar populations. Progress in our understanding of the atmospheres and evolution of massive stars…
Most stars form in highly clustered environments within molecular clouds, but eventually disperse into the distributed stellar field population. Exactly how the stellar distribution evolves from the embedded stage into gas-free associations…
Accurate determinations of masses and radii in binary stars, along with estimates of the effective temperatures, metallicities, and other properties, have long been used to test models of stellar evolution. As might be expected,…
Understanding the star-formation properties of galaxies as a function of cosmic epoch is a critical exercise in studies of galaxy evolution. Traditionally, stellar population synthesis models have been used to obtain best fit parameters…
Stellar population synthesis can be approached as an inverse problem. The physical information is extracted from the observations through an inverse model. The process requires the transformation of the observational errors into model…
Masking the horizontal branch and giant stars allows unambiguous measurements of mean age and metallicity in simple old stellar populations from metal and hydrogen line strengths. Billion year resolution is possible in the luminous halos of…
The effects of rapid rotation on stellar evolution can be profound. We are now beginning to gather enough data to allow a realistic comparison between different physical models. Two key tests for any theory of stellar rotation are first…