Related papers: A Supergiants
I will be reviewing three methods to identify late-type giants in extragalactic systems, based on the main characteristics of AGB stars (they are infrared bright, variable, and have spectral peculiarities).
Blue supergiant stars can be exceptionally bright objects in the optical, making them prime targets for the determination of extragalactic distances. I describe how their photometric and spectroscopic properties can be calibrated to provide…
We present the results of a narrow-band infrared imaging survey of a narrow strip (12' wide) around the galactic equator between 6 deg and 21 deg of galactic longitude aimed at detecting field stars with strong CO absorption, mainly…
BA-type supergiants show a high potential as versatile indicators for modern astronomy. The focus here is on the determination of accurate and precise atmospheric parameters for a sample of 35 Galactic BA-type supergiants. Some first…
Massive BA-type supergiants are among the visually brightest stars in galaxies with active star formation. As such they are versatile tools for studies of stellar and galactochemical evolution. Moreover, they can act as distance indicators…
Luminous BA-SGs allow topics ranging from NLTE physics and the evolution of massive stars to the chemical evolution of galaxies and cosmology to be addressed. A hybrid NLTE technique for the quantitative spectroscopy of BA-SGs is discussed.…
We present the results obtained using spectroscopic data taken with the intermediateresolution Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) of B and A-type supergiants and bright giants in the Sculptor Group galaxy NGC 300. For our analysis, a…
I briefly mention a few possible applications of very high spectral resolution spectroscopy with CRIRES to the study of nearby galaxies. This includes the fields of AGN, dynamically cold systems, super stellar and emission line clusters,…
The star-forming galaxies of the Local Group act as our laboratories for testing massive star evolutionary models. In this review, I briefly summarize what we believe we know about massive star evolution, and the connection between OB…
It is currently impossible to determine the abundances of stellar populations star-by-star in dense stellar systems more distant than a few megaparsecs. Therefore, methods to analyse the composite light of stellar systems are required. I…
Owing to their extreme crowding and high and variable extinction, stars in the Galactic Bulge, within +-2 degrees of the Galactic plane, and especially those in the Nuclear Star Cluster, have only rarely been targeted for an analyses of…
Strong gravitational lensing at the galaxy scale is a valuable tool for various applications in astrophysics and cosmology. The primary uses of galaxy-scale lensing are to study elliptical galaxies' mass structure and evolution, constrain…
The most obvious extragalactic targets for optical/infrared interferometers are Active Galactic Nuclei. In this document, I try to overview other topics that could be of interest to studies of galaxies and whether they could be adequate for…
This brief review describes some of the observed properties of the populations of massive asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars and red supergiants (RSGs) found in nearby galaxies, with a focus on their luminosity functions, mass-loss rates…
We give an overview of the science case for spectroscopy of resolved stellar populations beyond the Local Group with the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). In particular, we present science simulations undertaken as part of the…
Gravitational microlensing provides a new technique for studying the surfaces of distant stars. Microlensing events are detected in real time and can be followed up with precision photometry and spectroscopy. This method is particularly…
The first directly imaged exoplanets indicated that wide-orbit giant planets could be more common around A-type stars. However, the relatively small number of nearby A-stars has limited the precision of exoplanet demographics studies to…
NLTE spectral analyses of high-gravity central stars by means of state-of-the-art model atmosphere techniques provide information about the precursor AGB stars. The hydrogen-deficient post-AGB stars allow investigations on the intershell…
The determination of chemical composition is crucial for investigating the formation and evolution of star forming galaxies and provides a powerful tool to constrain the effects of galactic winds and accretion from the cosmic web. In this…
Given their location on the Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagram, thoroughly characterized subgiant stars can place stringent constraints on a wide range of astrophysical problems. Accordingly, they are prime asteroseismic targets for the…