Related papers: Stellar spectroscopy far beyond the Local Group

We have developed a method to identify planetary nebula (PN) candidates in imaging data of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). This method exploits the SDSS' five-band sampling of emission lines in PN spectra, which results in a color…

Mass loss is a key aspect of stellar evolution, particularly in evolved massive stars, yet episodic mass loss remains poorly understood. To investigate this, we need evolved massive stellar populations across various galactic environments.…

We investigate the origin of the strong radial gradient in the ultraviolet-to-infrared ratio in the spiral galaxy NGC 300, and emphasize the importance of local variations in the interstellar medium geometry, concluding that they cannot be…

We perform a deep survey of planetary nebulae (PNe) in the spiral galaxy NGC 300 to construct its planetary nebula luminosity function (PNLF). We aim to derive the distance using the PNLF and to probe the characteristics of the most…

HIZSS3 is an H I source in the Zone of Avoidance. Its radio characteristics are consistent with it being nearby (~ 1.8 Mpc) low-mass dwarf irregular (dIm) galaxy. It contains a modest H II region, but its stellar population has not been…

Determining the distance to the open cluster M29 (NGC 6913) has proven difficult, with distances determined by various authors differing by a factor of two or more. To solve this problem, we have initiated a new photometric investigation of…

In modern cosmology, determining the Hubble constant (H0) using distance ladder to percent level and comparing with the results from Planck satellite can shed light on the nature of the dark energy, the physics of neutrino, and the…

Intrigued by the extended red-giant clump (RC) stretching across the colour-magnitude diagram of the stars in a 50x50 pc^2 region of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) containing the clusters NGC 1938 and NGC 1939, we have studied the stellar…

We report new HST/WFPC2 photometry for 10 globular clusters (GC) in M31 observed in F5555W(V) and F814W(I). Additionally we have reanalyzed HST archival data of comparable quality for 2 more GCs. Extraordinary care is taken to account for…

Deriving the physical properties of red supergiants (RSGs) depends upon accurate corrections for reddening by dust. We use our recent modeling of the optical spectra of RSGs to address this topic. We find: (1) Previous broad-band studies…

We present new (V,V-I)-photometry of the metal-rich globular clusters NGC 5927, 6316, 6342, 6441 and 6760. The clusters show differential reddening up to dE(V-I)=0.32 mag, for which the CMDs are corrected via extinction maps. There are…

We present the velocity dispersion of red giant branch (RGB) stars in M31's halo, derived by modeling the line of sight velocity distribution of over 5000 stars in 50 fields spread throughout M31's stellar halo. The dataset was obtained as…

Quantitative spectroscopy of O-type stars in galaxies beyond 1 Mpc requires the unprecedented sensitivity of the so-called Extremely Large Telescopes. Visible spectroscopy with these exciting new facilities will give us the first chance to…

We present a distance to NGC 4527, the host galaxy of the type Ia SN 1991T, measured by surface brightness fluctuations. This supernova has been labelled ``peculiar'' both on the grounds of its spectroscopic behaviour and its apparent…

Magnitude-limited samples of spiral galaxies drawn from the Ursa Major and Pisces clusters are used to determine their extinction properties as a function of inclination. Imaging photometry is available for 87 spirals in B,R,I and K' bands.…

The under-abundance of very massive galaxies in the universe is frequently attributed to the effect of galactic winds. Although ionized galactic winds are readily observable most of the expelled mass is likely in cooler atomic and molecular…

As deep spectroscopic campaigns extend to higher redshifts and lower stellar masses, the interpretation of galaxy spectra depends increasingly upon models for very young stellar populations. Here we present new HST/COS ultraviolet…

Thanks to the outstanding capabilites of the HST, our current knowledge about the M31 globular clusters (GCs) is similar to our knowledge of the Milky Way GCs in the 1960s-1970s, which set the basis for studying the halo and galaxy…

Stellar distance is an important basic parameter in stellar astrophysics. Stars in a cluster are thought to be formed coevally from the same interstellar cloud of gas and dust. They are therefore expected to have common properties. These…

(Abridged) We have obtained new spectrophotometric data for 28 HII regions in the spiral galaxy NGC 300, a member of the nearby Sculptor Group. The detection of auroral lines, including [OIII]4363, [SIII]6312 and [NII]5755, has allowed us…