Related papers: Post-AGB Stars as Standard Extragalactic Candles
Understanding galaxy classification depends on our interpretation of their spectra. To date, the hydrogen Balmer lines remain the most consistent way to classify galaxies, but at 'intermediate' redshifts ($1.5 < z < 2.5$), galaxies are hard…
We revisit the longstanding question of whether first brightest cluster galaxies are statistically drawn from the same distribution as other cluster galaxies or are "special", using the new non-parametric, empirically based model presented…
We have identified a new class of Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars in the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds (SMC/LMC) using optical to infrared photometry, light curves, and optical spectroscopy. The strong dust production and…
By virtue of their spectral types, favourable bolometric corrections as well as their constrained distances, post-AGB stars in external galaxies offer unprecedented tests to AGB nucleosynthesis and dredge-up predictions. We focus here on…
We present a study of 15 long-duration gamma-ray burst (GRB) host galaxies at z>2. The GRBs are selected with available early-time afterglow spectra in order to compare interstellar medium (ISM) absorption-line properties with stellar…
Several standard candles have been tested and used to measure accurate extragalactic distances over the past decades. There have been discussions regarding the possibility of using Type-II Cepheids (T2Cs) as an alternative tool, but rarely…
Following on from our discovery of a significant population of M31 outer halo globular clusters (GCs), and updates to the Revised Bologna Catalogue of M31 GCs, we investigate the GC system of M31 out to an unprecedented radius (~120kpc). We…
We present observations with the Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 of three fields centered on super-metal-rich globular clusters in the bulge of M31. Our (I,V-I) color-magnitude diagrams reach as faint as I ~ 26.5 mag…
Deep near-infrared images obtained with adaptive optics systems on the Gemini North and Canada-France-Hawaii telescopes are used to investigate the bright stellar content and central regions of the nearby elliptical galaxy Maffei 1. Stars…
The presence of systematic modulations in the colour distributions in composite samples of globular clusters associated with galaxies in the Virgo and Fornax clusters has been reported in a previous work. In this paper we focus on the 27…
We identify six ultra diffuse galaxies (UDGs) outside clusters in three nearby isolated groups (z<0.026) using very deep imaging in three different SDSS filters (g, r and i bands) from the IAC Stripe82 Legacy Project. By comparing with the…
The percentage of massive main sequence OB stars in binary systems is thought to be as high as 100%. However, very few Galactic binary red supergiants (RSGs) have been identified, despite the fact that these stars are the evolved…
Blue horizontal branch and UV bright stars in several globular clusters are analysed spectroscopically and the results are compared with predictions of stellar evolutionary theory. We find that the distribution of temperatures and surface…
At luminosities above ~10^{11} L_sun, infrared galaxies become the dominant population of extragalactic objects in the local Universe (z < 0.5), being more numerous than optically selected starburst and Seyfert galaxies, and QSOs at…
We have studied the infrared properties of the brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) located in the cores of X-ray-luminous clusters at 0.15 < z < 0.35. The majority of the BCGs are not particularly infrared-luminous compared with other massive…
A fraction of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) shows bright emission in the UV and the blue part of the optical spectrum, which has been interpreted as evidence of recent star formation. Most of these results are based on the analysis of…
M31 is a very tempting target for a microlensing search of compact objects in galactic haloes. It is the nearest large galaxy, it probably has its own dark halo, and its tilted position with respect to the line of sight provides an…
The study of outer halo globular cluster (GC) populations can give insight into galaxy merging, globular cluster accretion and the origin of GCs. We use archival Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) data in concert with space-based GALEX, IRAC…
The Pierre Auger Observatory reports that 20 of the 27 highest energy cosmic rays have arrival directions within 3.2 deg of a nearby galaxy in the Veron-Cetty & Veron Catalog of Quasars and Active Galactic Nuclei (12th Ed.), with ~5 of the…
Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) in massive dark matter halos are shaped by complex merging processes. We present a detailed stellar population analysis in the central region of Abell 3827 at $z\sim0.1$, including five-nucleus galaxies…