Related papers: A Supergiants
High-mass stars are major players in the chemical and dynamical evolution of galaxies. Open clusters and associations represent the natural laboratories to study their evolution. In this review, I will present a personal selection of…
Context: The number of known strong gravitational lenses is expected to grow substantially in the next few years. The statistical combination of large samples of lenses has the potential of providing strong constraints on the inner…
The origin of chemically peculiar stars remains enigmatic, especially regarding their frequency among their "normal" peers. In addition to magnetic fields and rotation, multiplicity may shed light on the question. We mention the main…
We propose a new approach for measuring the mass profile and shape of groups and clusters of galaxies, which uses lensing magnification of distant background galaxies. The main advantage of lensing magnification is that, unlike lensing…
B[e] supergiants are evolved massive stars with a complex circumstellar environment. A number of important emission features probe the structure and the kinematics of the circumstellar material. In our survey of Magellanic Cloud B[e]…
Red supergiants are a short-lived stage in the evolution of moderately massive stars (10-25Mo), and as such their location in the H-R diagram provides an exacting test of stellar evolutionary models. Since massive star evolution is strongly…
Key absorption features in the spectra of massive quiescent galaxies reveal a wealth of information about their stellar populations and, in some cases, the properties of gas within and around them. With the spectroscopic capabilities of…
Recent progress in our knowledge of stellar populations in local dwarf spheroidal galaxies is briefly discussed. A few results are summarized including wide field observations of stellar populations and their spatial variations, studies of…
Within the Local Universe galaxies can be studied in great detail star by star, and here we review the results of quantitative studies in nearby dwarf galaxies. The Color-Magnitude Diagram synthesis method is well established as the most…
Globular star clusters are extremely important astrophysical objects since (1) they are prime laboratories for testing stellar evolution; (2) they are ``fossils'' from the epoch of galaxy formation, and thus important cosmological tools;…
Normal galaxies are faint and complex X-ray sources that provide very powerful probes for fundamental astrophysical questions. Examples include: the study of populations of X-ray emitting sources; the study of the entire spectrum of…
B[e] stars are among the most peculiar objects in the sky. This spectral type, characterised by allowed and forbidden emission lines, and a large infrared excess, does not represent an homogenous class of objects, but instead, a mix of…
The Galactic centre and its surrounding space are important in studying galaxy-scale evolution, and stellar populations therein are expected to have imprints of the long-term evolution. Interstellar extinction, however, severely limits…
Basic considerations of lens detection and identification indicate that a wide field survey of the types planned for weak lensing and Type Ia SNe with SNAP are close to optimal for the optical detection of strong lenses. Such a…
We study the formation of Li lines in a case study of an S-type AGB star in the SMC. AGB stars may be important providers of $^7$Li to the interstellar medium. Abundance analysis of these stars is difficult due to the heavy molecular…
We present spectrophotometric data from 0.4 to 4.2 microns for bright, northern sky, Be stars and several other types of massive stars. Our goal is to use these data with ongoing, high angular resolution, interferometric observations to…
A review of the spectroscopic tools needed to characterize AGNs is presented. This review focusses on ultraviolet, optical and infrared emission-line diagnostics specifically designed to help differentiate AGNs from starburst-dominated…
We provide a grid of PHOENIX spectra of red giant and supergiant stars, that extend through optical and near-IR wavelengths. For the first time, models are also provided with modified surface abundances of C, N and O, as a step towards…
Supernova remnants serve as nearby laboratories relevant to many areas in Astrophysics, from stellar and galaxy evolution to extreme astrophysics and the formation of the heavy elements in the Universe. The Chandra X-ray mission has enabled…
The identification of individual stars in crowded environments using photometric information alone is confounded by source confusion. However, with the addition of spectroscopic information it is possible to distinguish between blends and…