Related papers: A New Way to Resolve Cepheid Binaries
The contact binary AW UMa has an extreme mass ratio, with the more massive component (the current primary) close to the main sequence, while the low mass star at q ~ 0.1 (the current secondary) has a much larger radius than a main sequence…
Thanks to HST, there are now many galaxies with Cepheid distances and these provide the main platform for the calibration of the secondary distance indicators. I review recent progress in our understanding of the standard candle properties…
Fundamental mode classical Cepheids have light curves which repeat accurately enough that we can watch them evolve (change period). The new level of accuracy and quantity of data with the {\it Kepler} and {\it MOST} satellites probes this…
The identification of binary stars of different mass ratios in resolved stellar populations is a challenging task. We show how the photometric diagram constructed with the pseudo-colors (H-W2)-W1 vs W2-(BP-K) can be employed to estimate the…
We review the phenomenology of classical Cepheids (CCs), Anomalous Cepheids (ACs) and type II Cepheids (TIICs) in the Milky Way (MW) and in the Magellanic Clouds (MCs). We also examine the Hertzsprung progression in different stellar…
The spatial resolution of astronomical images is limited by atmospheric turbulence and diffraction in the telescope optics, resulting in blurred images. This makes it difficult to accurately measure the brightness of blended objects because…
The structure and evolution of central stars of planetary nebulae (CSPNe) is reviewed. CSPNe represent the rapid transitional stage between the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) and the white-dwarf domain. It is shown that the whole evolution…
We present a spectroscopic analysis of four massive binary systems that are known or are good candidates to display the Struve-Sahade effect (defined as the apparent strengthening of the secondary spectrum of the binary when the star is…
Astrometric calibration of images with a small field of view is often inferior to the internal accuracy of the source detections due to the small number of accessible guide stars. One important experiment with such challenges is the Hubble…
It is now clear that central star binarity plays a key role in the formation and evolution of planetary nebulae, with a significant fraction playing host to close-binary central stars which have survived one or more common envelope…
Recent papers published in the last years contributed to resolve the enigma on the hypothetical Be nature of the hot pulsating star $\beta$ Cep. This star shows variable emission in the H$\alpha$ line, typical for Be stars, but its…
HD~5501, a hitherto little studied eclipsing binary with an early A-type primary, has been caught in a short-lived, astrophysically interesting phase of its binary evolution. Recent photometric and spectroscopic observations, including…
Classical Cepheids are powerful probes of both stellar evolution and near-field cosmology thanks to their high luminosities, pulsations, and that they follow the Leavitt (Period-Luminosity) Law. However, there still exist a number of…
The analysis of the CoRoT space mission data was performed aiming to test a method that selects, among the several light curves observed, the transiting systems that likely host a low-mass star orbiting the main target. The method…
We submitted the available photometric V data of all the known galactic Double Mode Cepheids (DMCs) to a careful frequency analysis with the aim of detecting in each case the importance of the harmonics and of the cross coupling terms. For…
Binary central stars have long been invoked to explain the vexing shapes of planetary nebulae (PNe) despite there being scant direct evidence to support this hypothesis. Modern large-scale surveys and improved observing strategies have…
The evolution of central stars of planetary nebulae can proceed in several distinct ways, either leading to H-deficiency or to H-normal surface composition. Several new simulations of the evolution channels that lead to H-deficiency are now…
Stellar variability may originate from various phenomena such as binarity, pulsations, or rotation. These mechanisms can induce flux variations of similar magnitudes, shapes, and periods. We aim to determine mechanisms responsible for the…
The occurrence of planets in binary star systems has been investigated via a variety of techniques that sample a wide range of semi-major axes, but with a preponderance of such results applicable to planets with semi-major axes less than a…
A sample of 14 pre-main sequence visual binary systems in southern star-forming regions were imaged at 2 um with the Keck I telescope to search for tertiary companions, scattered-light disks, and compact nebulae at linear scales of 5-100…