Related papers: Is Palomar 1 really associated with the Canis Majo…
We explore how the local environment is related to properties of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) of various luminosities. Recent simulations and observations are converging on the view that the extreme luminosity of quasars, the brightest of…
We present the first color-magnitude study for Palomar 2, a distant and heavily obscured globular cluster near the Galactic anticenter. Our (V,V-I) color-magnitude diagram (CMD), obtained with the UH8K camera at the CFHT, reaches V(lim) =…
A deep objective-prism survey for H-alpha emission stars towards the Canis Major star-forming clouds was performed. A total of 398 Halpha emitters were detected, 353 of which are new detections. There is a strong concentration of these…
Recently, it was suggested that large concentrations or groups of quasars may trace sites of enhanced matter density at medium and high redshifts analogous to how galaxy clusters trace them in nearby space. We have checked existing quasar…
Galactic globular cluster stars exhibit abundance patterns which are not shared by their field counterparts. It is clear from recent spectroscopic observations of GC turnoff stars that these abundance anomalies were already present in the…
Concentration is one of the key dark matter halo properties that could drive the scatter in the stellar-to-halo mass relation of massive clusters. We derive robust photometric stellar masses for a sample of brightest central galaxies (BCGs)…
We analyse the nature of a sample of stellar overdensities that we found projected on the Carina complex. This study is based on 2MASS photometry and involves the photometry decontamination of field stars, elaboration of intrinsic…
Star clusters are fundamental building blocks of galaxies. Their formation is related to the density and pressure in progenitor molecular clouds and their environmental conditions. To understand better the dynamical processes driving star…
We present a new investigation of the Cloverleaf (z=2.558) based on the combination of archival HST/WFPC2 data, recent IRAM CO(7-6) maps and wide field CFHT/FOCAM images. The deepest WFPC2 observation shows a significant overdensity of I ~…
The abundance of alpha elements and iron in stars of globular clusters shows the composition of the gaseous medium, in which they have been formed. In the present paper, we discuss a possibility to consider dense clouds of circumgalactic…
The majority of bright distant quasars $(z {}^{>}_{\sim} 1)$ may form in massive mergers appearing in compact galaxy groups in/and young clusters. The expected tests are (i) large correlation signal for medium-$z$ QSOs $(1 < z < 2)$ and…
The first systematic study of the serendipitous X-ray source density around 10 high z (0.24<z<1.2) clusters performed with Chandra is presented. A factor \~2 overdensity has been found in 4 cluster fields. The result is statistically highly…
Detailed elemental-abundance patterns of giant stars in the Galactic halo measured by APOGEE-2 have revealed the existence of a unique and significant stellar sub-population of silicon-enhanced ([Si/Fe]$\gtrsim +0.5$) metal-poor stars,…
The distribution on the sky of clusters of galaxies shows significant association with relatively nearby, large, active galaxies. The pattern is that of clusters paired equidistant across a central galaxy with the apparent magnitudes and…
High-redshift quasars are believed to reside in massive halos in the early universe and should therefore be located in fields with overdensities of galaxies, which are thought to evolve into galaxy clusters seen in the local universe.…
The Small Magellanic Cloud is a close, irregular galaxy that has experienced a complex star formation history due to the strong interactions occurred both with the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Galaxy. Despite its importance, the chemical…
We use Hubble Space Telescope imaging to show that the nearby dwarf starburst galaxy NGC 4449 has an unusual abundance of luminous red star clusters. Joint constraints from integrated photometry, low-resolution spectroscopy, dynamical…
Analysis of cluster and field star uvby data demonstrates the existence of a previously undetected discrepancy in a widely used photometric metallicity calibration for G dwarfs. The discrepancy is systematic and strongly color-dependent,…
Using numerical simulations of cluster formation in the standard CDM model (SCDM) and in a low-density, flat CDM model with a cosmological constant (LCDM), we investigate the gravitational lensing explanation for the reported associations…
We recently discovered that NGC 3201 has characteristics that set it outside the current twofold classification scheme for Galactic globular clusters (GCs). Most GCs are mono-metallic and show light-element abundance variations (e.g., Na-O…