相关论文: M31, M33 and the Milky Way: Similarities and Diffe…
Local Group galaxies such as the Milky Way, the Magellanic Clouds, and M31 are being used by a number of international collaborations to search for microlensing events. Type and number of detections place constraints on dark matter and the…
Our Milky Way Galaxy is a typical large spiral galaxy, representative of the most common morphological type in the local Universe. We can determine the properties of individual stars in unusual detail, and use the characteristics of the…
I present the latest results from our group about the multiple stellar populations in the old Milky Way globular clusters (GCs) and in the young systems both in the Magellanic Clouds and in the Milky Way. For the ancient GCs in our Galaxy I…
I review the characteristics of cluster populations in other galaxies, with particular emphasis on young star clusters and a comparison with the (known) open cluster population of the Milky Way. Young globular cluster-like (compact,…
Upcoming next generation galactic surveys, such as GAIA and HERMES, will deliver unprecedented detail about the structure and make-up of our Galaxy, the Milky Way, and promise to radically improve our understanding of it. However, to…
The Local Group provides an interesting and representative sample of galaxies in the rest of the Universe. The high accuracy with which many problems can be addressed in Local Group galaxies is of paramount importance for understanding…
The satellite galaxies of the Local Group provide us with an important probe of galaxy formation, evolution, and cosmology. The two large spirals that dominate this group -- the Milky Way and Andromeda -- are each host to tens of…
The globular cluster (GC) systems of the Milky Way and of our neighboring spiral galaxy, M31, comprise 2 distinct entities, differing in 3 respects. 1. M31 has young GCs, ages from ~100 Myr to 5 Gyr old, as well as old globular clusters. No…
Gaia will play an important role in providing information about star formation histories, merging events, intergalactic streams etc., for nearby galaxies of the Local Group. One of the most crucial contributions will be proper motions,…
Stellar Populations are the fossil record of Galactic evolution. Interpretation of this record in the Local Group allows one to determine reliably the dominant physics controlling the evolution of those galaxies which are typical of the…
With the start of the Gaia era, the time has come to address the major challenge of deriving the star formation history and evolution of the disk of our MilkyWay. Here we review our present knowledge of the outer regions of the Milky Way…
Thick disks appear to be common in external large spiral galaxies and our own Milky Way also hosts one. The existence of a thick disk is possibly directly linked to the formation history of the host galaxy and if its properties is known it…
The Milky Way System and the Andromeda galaxy experienced radically different evolutionary histories. Nevertheless, it is found that these two galaxies ended up with globular cluster systems in which individual clusters have…
Star clusters are among the first celestial objects catalogued by early astronomers. As simple and coeval populations, their study has been instrumental in charting the properties of the Milky Way and providing insight into stellar…
It is suggested that M31 was created by the early merger, and subsequent violent relaxation, of two or more massive metal-rich ancestral galaxies within the core of the Andromeda subgroup of the Local Group. On the other hand the evolution…
The galaxies of the Local Group that are currently forming stars can serve as our laboratories for understanding star formation and the evolution of massive stars. In this talk I will summarize what I think we've learned about these topics…
Populations of young star clusters show significant differences even among "normal" disk galaxies. In this contribution I discuss how properties of young cluster systems are related to those of their host galaxies, based on a recent study…
The Milky Way provides an ideal laboratory to test our understanding of galaxy evolution, owing to our ability to observe our Galaxy over fine scales. However, connecting the Galaxy to the wider galaxy population remains difficult, due to…
The history of the formation and evolution of the Milky Way Galaxy is found in the spatial distribution, kinematics, age and chemical abundance distributions of long-lived stars. From this fossil record one can in principle extract the star…
We discuss recent observations of stars located close to the symmetry plane of the Milky Way, and examine them in the context of theories of Galaxy formation and evolution. The kinematics, ages, and compositions of thin disk stars in the…