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We present a summary of our recent work on the vertical distribution of the resolved stellar populations in six low mass, edge-on, spiral galaxies observed with the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys (HST/ACS). In each…
An overview of our current understanding of the formation and evolution of star clusters is given, with main emphasis on high-mass clusters. Clusters form deeply embedded within dense clouds of molecular gas. Left-over gas is cleared within…
We have studied the young low-mass pre-main sequence (PMS) stellar population associated with the massive star-forming region DR 21 by using archival X-ray Chandra observations and by complementing them with existing optical and IR surveys.…
Feedback from massive stars plays a key role in molecular cloud evolution. After the onset of star formation, the young stellar population is exposed by photoionization, winds, supernovae, and radiation pressure from massive stars. Recent…
We have identified stellar and substellar members in the nearby star cluster Coma Berenices, using photometry, proper motions, and distances of a combination of 2MASS, UKIDSS, URAT1, and {\it Gaia}/DR2 data. Those with {\it Gaia}/DR2…
We infer the ages of three young stellar clusters, NGC 2004, NGC 7419, and NGC 2100, using Stellar Ages, a statistical algorithm designed to infer stellar population properties from color magnitude diagrams. Recent studies have revealed…
Because of strong and spatially highly variable interstellar extinction and extreme source crowding, the faint (K>15) stellar population in the Milky Way's nuclear cluster is still poorly studied. RR Lyrae stars provide us with a tool to…
We present a survey of 130 Galactic and extragalactic young massive clusters (YMCs, $10^4 < M/\msun < 10^8$, $10 < t/{\rm Myr} < 1000$) with integrated spectroscopy or resolved stellar photometry (40 presented here and 90 from the…
Previous star formation studies have, out of necessity, often defined a population of young stars confined to the proximity of a molecular cloud. Gaia allows us to examine a wider, three-dimensional structure of nearby star forming regions,…
We present a brief summary of our current results on the stellar distribution and population gradients of the resolved stars in the surroundings of ~50 nearby disk galaxies, observed with space- (Hubble & Spitzer) and ground-based…
We investigate the nature and possible evolution of the young Galactic star clusters Collinder 197 (Cr 197) and vdB 92. The colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) are basically characterised by a poorly-populated MS and a dominant fraction…
We present a study of the infrared variability of young stellar objects by means of two Spitzer-IRAC images of the Vela Molecular Cloud D (VMR-D) obtained in observations separated in time by about six months. By using the same space-born…
(abridged) We provide Ks photometry for roughly 39,000 stars and H-band photometry for about 11,000 stars within a field of about 40"x40", centred on Sgr A*. In addition, we provide Ks photometry of about 3,000 stars in a very deep central…
Several observations of the central region of the Hydra I galaxy cluster point to a multi-epoch assembly history. Using our novel FORS2/VLT spectroscopic data set, we were able to map the luminosity-weighted age, [Fe/H] and [$\alpha$/Fe]…
The census of the globular clusters (GCs) in the Milky Way (MW) is still a work in progress. We explore the nature of 19 new GC candidates in the Galactic bulge, based on the analysis of their colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) in the…
We present new proper motions from the 10 m Keck telescopes for a puzzling population of massive, young stars located within 3.5" (0.14 pc) of the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Center. Our proper motion measurements have…
Recent studies have started to cast doubt on the assumption that most stars are formed in clusters. Observational studies of field stars and star cluster systems in nearby galaxies can lead to better constraints on the fraction of stars…
The optical integrated spectra of three LMC young stellar clusters (NGC 1984, NGC 1994 and NGC 2011) exhibit concave continua and prominent molecular bands which deviate significantly from the predictions of single stellar population (SSP)…
The properties of young stellar clusters (YSCs) in M33, identified from the center out to about twice the size of the bright star-forming disk,are investigated. We find 915 discrete MIR sources as far as the extent of the warped HI disk,…
The ACS Survey of Galactic Globular Clusters is a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Treasury program designed to provide a new large, deep and homogeneous photometric database. Based on observations from this program, we have measured precise…