Related papers: Large-scale time-series spectroscopy for stellar a…
The Gaia mission is expected to provide highly accurate astrometric, photometric, and spectroscopic measurements for about $10^9$ objects. Automated classification of detected sources is a key part of the data processing. Here a few aspects…
Imaging and resolved spectroscopy reveal varying environmental conditions in our dynamic solar system. Many key advances have focused on how these conditions change over time. Observatory-level commitments to conduct annual observations of…
In the era of Gaia, the accurate determination of stellar ages is transforming Galactic archaeology. We demonstrate the feasibility of inferring stellar ages from Gaia's RVS spectra and the BP/RP (XP) spectrophotometric data, specifically…
The National Academy Committee on Astrobiology and Planetary Science (CAPS) made a recommendation to study a large/medium-class dedicated space telescope for planetary science, going beyond the Discovery-class dedicated planetary space…
Space-based time-domain telescopes such as CoRoT, Kepler/K2 and TESS have profoundly impacted astrophysics over the past two decades. Continuous light curves with high cadence and high photometric precision are now available for millions of…
We present recent progress on quantitative estimation of stellar ages using ind icators such as theoretical evolutionary tracks, rotation, rotation-driven chrom ospheric and coronal activity, and lithium depletion. Our focus is on roughly…
We propose to advance investigations of electromagnetic radiation originating in atomic nuclei beyond its current infancy to a true astronomy. This nuclear emission is independent from conditions of gas, thus complements more traditional…
The knowledge of stellar ages directly impacts the characterization of a planetary system as it puts strong constraints on the moment when the system was born. Unfortunately, the determination of precise stellar ages is a very difficult…
The next decade affords tremendous opportunity to achieve the goals of Galactic archaeology. That is, to reconstruct the evolutionary narrative of the Milky Way, based on the empirical data that describes its current morphological,…
It is currently impossible to determine the abundances and ages of the stellar populations of distant, dense stellar systems star by star. Therefore, methods to analyze the composite light of stellar systems are required. I review the…
Asteroseismic parameters allow us to measure the basic stellar properties of field giants observed far across the Galaxy. Most of such determinations are, up to now, based on simple scaling relations involving the large frequency…
Stellar clusters are important for astrophysics in many ways, for instance as optimal tracers of the Galactic populations to which they belong or as one of the best test bench for stellar evolutionary models. Gaia DR1, with TGAS, is just…
I discuss the chemical and spectrophotometric evolution of galaxies over cosmological timescales and present a first attempt to treat both aspects in a chemically consistent way. In our evolutionary synthesis approach, we account for the…
It is well known that, when analyzed at the light of current synthesis model predictions, variations in the physical properties of single stellar populations (e.g. age, metallicity, initial mass function, element abundance ratios) may have…
Selected results obtained in major observational sky surveys (DSS, 2MASS, 2dF, SDSS) and deep field observations (HDF, GOODS, HUDF, etc.) are reviewed. Modern surveys provide information on the characteristics and space distribution of…
Integrated spectroscopy is the method of choice for deriving the ages of unresolved stellar systems. However, hot stellar evolutionary stages, such as hot horizontal branch stars and blue straggler stars (BSSs), can affect the integrated…
The study of open clusters has a classic feel to it since the subject predates anyone alive today. Despite the age of this topic, I show via an ADS search that its relevance and importance in astronomy has grown faster in the last few…
We use the framework developed as part of the MESA Isochrones and Stellar Tracks (MIST) project to assess the utility of several types of observables in jointly measuring the age and 1D stellar model parameters in star clusters. We begin…
If we are to develop a comprehensive and predictive theory of galaxy formation and evolution, it is essential that we obtain an accurate assessment of how and when galaxies assemble their stellar populations, and how this assembly varies…
Globular clusters are relics of the early Universe and they hold clues to many aspects of stellar and galactic evolution. We propose to point the Roman Space Telescope at one or more clusters either as a part of or as an extension of the…