Related papers: The Gould Belt
The Galactic distribution of the high-latitude molecular clouds is considered. It is suggested that the majority of these clouds are clustered in two large shells around the two closest OB associations, Per OB3/Cas-Tau and Sco OB2. The most…
The central molecular zone (CMZ) hosts some of the most massive and dense molecular clouds and star clusters in the Galaxy, offering an important window into star formation under extreme conditions. Star formation in this extreme…
Globular clusters are among the most congested stellar systems in the Universe. Internal dynamical evolution drives them toward states of high central density, while simultaneously concentrating the most massive stars and binary systems in…
Galactic globular clusters are ancient building blocks of our Galaxy. They represent a very interesting family of stellar systems in which some fundamental dynamical processes have been taking place for more than 10 Gyr, but on time scales…
Proxima Centauri, the star closest to our Sun, is known to host at least one terrestrial planet candidate in a temperate orbit. Here we report the ALMA detection of the star at 1.3 mm wavelength and the discovery of a belt of dust orbiting…
Globular clusters (GCs) are the most ancient stellar systems in the Milky Way. Therefore, they play a key role in the understanding of the early chemical and dynamical evolution of our Galaxy. Around $40\%$ of them are placed within $\sim4$…
We have begun a survey of the molecular gas surrounding 31 young clusters in order to investigate the link between environment and the resulting cluster. We present here a preliminary comparison of two clusters in our sample: GGD12-15 and…
A sample of O- and B-type stars with Hipparcos astrometric data, ages computed from Str\"omgren photometry and radial velocities, has been used to characterize the structure, age and kinematics of the Gould Belt system. The local spiral…
The distribution of ultraviolet (UV) radiation field provides critical constraints on the physical environments of molecular clouds. Within 1 kpc of our solar system and fostering protostars of different masses, the giant molecular clouds…
This article gives an overview of the constitution, physical conditions and observables of dust in the interstellar medium of nearby galaxies. We first review the macroscopic, spatial distribution of dust in these objects, and its…
Galaxy clusters are the most massive collapsed structures in the universe whose potential wells are filled with hot, X-ray emitting intracluster medium. Observations however show that a significant number of clusters (the so-called…
Recent molecular line observations with ALMA and NOEMA in several Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCG) have revealed the large-scale filamentary structure at the center of cool core clusters. These filaments extend over 20-100kpc, they are…
The importance of understanding the current and historical galactic environments of cool stars is discussed. The penetration of interstellar gas into a stellar astrosphere is a function of the interaction of the star with the interstellar…
A warm/hot dust component (at temperature $>$ 300K) has been detected around $\sim$ 20% of stars. This component is called "exozodiacal dust" as it presents similarities with the zodiacal dust detected in our Solar System, even though its…
The early gas-dust solar nebula is considered: the gasdynamic theory is used to study the gravitational Jeans-type instability in its protoplanetary disk. The implications for the origin of the solar system are discussed. It is shown that a…
Interstellar dust is a key physical ingredient of galaxies, obscuring star formation, regulating the heating and cooling of the gas, and building-up chemical complexity. In this manuscript, I give a wide review of interstellar dust…
There is now strong evidence that the metal-rich globular clusters (GC) near the center of our Galaxy are associated with the Galactic bulge rather than the disk as previously thought. Here we extend the concept of bulge GCs to the GC…
Globular clusters (GCs) constitute a system which is evolving because of various interactions with the galactic environment. Evolution may be the explanation of many observed features of Globular Cluster Systems (GCSs); the different radial…
Globular cluster systems exhibit a bewildering variety of characteristics. No single scenario appears to be able to account for the wide range of specific globular cluster frequencies that are observed in galaxies of various types. The…
Because of its nearness to Earth, the centre of the Milky Way is the only galaxy nucleus in which we can study the characteristics, distribution, kinematics, and dynamics of the stars on milli-parsec scales. We have accurate and precise…