Related papers: MN44: a luminous blue variable running away from W…
This study presents an investigation of nearly two dozen candidate Luminous Blue Variables (cLBVs) in the galaxies M31 and M33. Eight stars have been studied in detail, while an additional sixteen objects are briefly mentioned. Multi-epoch…
New NTT/SOFI imaging and spectroscopy of the Wolf-Rayet population in Westerlund 1 are presented. Narrow-band near-IR imaging together with follow up spectroscopy reveals four new WR stars, of which three were independently identified…
Recent optical and IR studies have revealed that the heavily-reddened starburst cluster Westerlund 1 (Wd 1) contains at least 22 Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars, comprising the richest WR population of any galactic cluster. We present results of a…
The evolutionary relationships and mechanisms governing the behavior of the wide variety of luminous stars populating the upper H-R diagram are not well established. Luminous blue variables (LBVs) are particularly rare, with only a few…
We present results of a search for variable stars in the intermediate-age open cluster NGC 7044. We found 23 variable stars in the observed field. One star turned out to be of the delta Sct type with two pulsational modes excited. From the…
Massive stellar clusters have recently been hypothesised as candidates for the acceleration of hadronic cosmic rays up to PeV energies. Previously, the H.E.S.S. Collaboration has reported about very extended $\gamma$-ray emission around…
We present new spectroscopic and photometric observations of the young Galactic open cluster Westerlund 1 (Wd 1) that reveal a unique population of massive evolved stars. We identify ~200 cluster members and present spectroscopic…
Luminous Blue Variables (LBVs) are a class of massive blue supergiants exhibiting irregular and eruptive instability, sometimes accompanied by extreme mass loss. While they have often been considered to be a brief but very important…
Identifying binaries among runaway O- and B-type stars offers valuable insight into the evolution of open clusters and close binary stars. Here we present a spectroscopic investigation of 12 known or suspected binaries among field and…
We report the discovery of a population of Wolf-Rayet stars in the young Galactic open cluster Westerlund 1. In an incomplete shallow spectroscopic survey, we find six nitrogen-rich (WN) and five carbon-rich (WC) WR stars. We also confirm…
We have undertaken a search for variable stars in the metal-rich globular cluster NGC 6441 using time-series BV photometry. The total number of variables found near NGC 6441 has been increased to ~104, with 48 new variables being found in…
We report the detection of 3 additional Wolf-Rayet stars in the young cluster Westerlund 1. They were selected as emission-line star candidates based on 1 micron narrow-band imaging of the cluster carried out at OPD/LNA (Brazil), and then…
We study the kinematics of luminous blue variables (LBVs) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Using high-resolution spectra, we measure the systemic radial velocities for a sample of 16 LBVs and LBV candidates. In order to measure the net…
R 144 is the visually brightest WR star in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). R 144 was reported to be a binary, making it potentially the most massive binary thus observed. We perform a comprehensive spectral, photometric, orbital, and…
We extract light curves for 4554 objects with $9<G<19$ in the K2 superstamp observations of the globular cluster M4, including 3784 cluster members, and search for variability. Among cluster member objects, we detect 66 variables, of which…
HD 15137 is an intriguing runaway O-type binary system that offers a rare opportunity to explore the mechanism by which it was ejected from the open cluster of its birth. Here we present recent blue optical spectra of HD 15137 and derive a…
Luminous blue variables (LBVs) are expected to play an important role in massive stellar evolution as well as being the progenitors of some of the most luminous supernovae known. In this paper we provide a multiwavelength study of the…
We present HR Diagrams for the massive star populations in M31 and M33 including several different types of emission-line stars: the confirmed Luminous Blue Variables (LBVs), candidate LBVs, B[e] supergiants and the warm hypergiants. We…
We report the discovery of two new Galactic candidate luminous blue variable (cLBV) stars via detection of circular shells (typical of known confirmed and cLBVs) and follow-up spectroscopy of their central stars. The shells were detected at…
Westerlund 1 is the most important starburst cluster in the Galaxy due to its massive star content. We have performed BVIc and JKs photometry to investigate the initial mass function (IMF). By comparing the observed color with the spectral…