Related papers: The metallicity sensitivity of a surface brightnes…
We obtained high resolution ELODIE and CORALIE spectra for both components of 20 wide visual binaries composed of an F-, G- or K-dwarf primary and an M-dwarf secondary. We analyse the well understood spectra of the primaries to determine…
Based on a carefully constructed sample of dwarf stars, a new optical-near infrared photometric calibration to estimate the metallicity of late-type K and early-to-mid-type M dwarfs is presented. The calibration sample has two parts; the…
The spatial metallicity distribution of star clusters in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) has recently been found to correlate as a V-shaped function with the semi-major axis of an elliptical framework proposed to assume a projected galaxy…
The VISTA survey of the Magellanic Clouds System (VMC) is collecting deep $K_\mathrm{s}$--band time--series photometry of the pulsating variable stars hosted in the system formed by the two Magellanic Clouds and the Bridge connecting them.…
We present adaptive-optics assisted near-infrared high-spectral resolution observations of late-type giants in the nuclear star cluster of the Milky Way. The metallicity and elemental abundance measurements of these stars offer us an…
To analyze the vertical structure of edge-on galaxies, we have used images of a large uniform sample of flat galaxies that have been taken during the 2MASS all-sky survey. The photometric parameters, such as the radial scale length, the…
Looking for and studying very distant galaxy clusters, clusters at z>1, are one of the prime subjects of the modern observational cosmology. If the metallicity of the hot intra-cluster medium in very distant galaxy clusters is measured for…
We present new determinations of bolometric corrections and effective temperature scales as a function of infrared and optical colors, using a large database of photometric observations of about 6500 Population II giants in Galactic…
There is a well known correlation between the mass and metallicity of star-forming galaxies. Because mass is correlated with luminosity, this relation is often exploited, when spectroscopy is not available, to estimate galaxy metallicities…
We derive basic stellar parameters (angular diameters, effective temperatures, metallicities) and interstellar reddening for all beta Cephei stars observed during the IUE satellite mission, including those belonging to three open clusters.…
We study a sample of 16 microlensed Galactic bulge main sequence turnoff region stars for which high dispersion spectra have been obtained with detailed abundance analyses. We demonstrate that there is a very strong and highly statistically…
The present status of our knowledge of the distances to the Magellanic Clouds is evaluated from a post-Hipparcos perspective. After a brief summary of the effects of structure, reddening, age and metallicity, the primary distance indicators…
We demonstrate how the metallicities of young super star clusters can be measured using novel spectroscopic techniques in the J-band. The near-infrared flux of super star clusters older than ~6 Myr is dominated by tens to hundreds of red…
Deriving atmospheric parameters of a large sample of stars is of vital importance to understand the formation and evolution of the Milky Way. Photometric surveys, especially those with near-ultraviolet filters, can offer accurate…
The Cepheid period-luminosity (PL) relation is unquestionably one of the most powerful tools at our disposal for determining the extragalactic distance scale. While significant progress has been made in the past few years towards its…
We present results from the theoretical modelling of the observed B,V light curves of 14 RR Lyrae stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The sample includes 7 fundamental and 7 first overtone pulsators covering the metallicity range from…
Using photometric data from the 2MASS second incremental release point source catalog we constructed Ks vs. (J-Ks) color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) of Galactic globular clusters (GGCs) for which the JKs photometric data have been made…
The location of M dwarfs in the V-K_s--M_Ks color-magnitude diagram (CMD) has been shown to correlate with metallicity. We demonstrate that previous empirical photometric calibrations of M dwarf metallicity exploiting this correlation…
We investigate the universality of the globular cluster luminosity function (GCLF) and the use of this function as an extragalactic distance indicator. Previous studies have found an offset between GCLF distances and those obtained with…
Knowledge of stellar atmospheric parameters ($T_{\rm eff}$, $\log{g}$, [Fe/H]) of M dwarfs can be used to constrain both theoretical stellar models and Galactic chemical evolutionary models, and guide exoplanet searches, but their…