We have completed a spectroscopic study of the “12.4 hr clump”, the second largest substructure in the Quasar Equatorial Survey Team (QUEST) catalog. First discovered as an over-density of RR Lyrae stars (Vivas et al. 2001, ApJL 554 33), the region containing the “12.4 hr clump” has generated much interest (Newberg et al. (2002), Martinez-Delgado et al. (2007), Juric et al. (2008), amongst many others). Our first spectroscopic study of this clump revealed the presence of a sharp peak in the radial velocity histogram for the candidate stars (Duffau et al. 2006). The combination of this result and metal abundance estimates for the sample was then interpreted as a signature of the presence of a stellar stream within the clump. This sub-structure was named the “Virgo Stellar Stream” (VSS), given its location in the direction of the Virgo Constellation, at approximately 20 kpc from the Sun. Several other groups have studied this region and have suggested that the over-density containing the VSS could extend to larger areas of the sky (outside QUEST's observing range). We present the complete spectroscopic follow up of the clump candidates present in QUEST and the composite of the studies we performed along the same l.o.s., including data at brighter magnitudes (Vivas et al. 2008). Our study confirmed the nature of the VSS, revealed its likely extent within the QUEST survey and defined a number of its relevant properties.

In spite of significant recent and ongoing research efforts, most of the early evolution and long-term fate of young massive star clusters remain clouded in uncertainties. Here, I discuss our understanding of the initial conditions of star cluster formation and the importance of initial substructure for the subsequent dynamical-evolution and mass-segregation timescales. I also assess our current understanding of the (initial) binary fraction in star clusters and the shape of the stellar initial mass function at the low-mass end in the low-metallicity environment of the Large Magellanic Cloud. Finally, I question the validity of our assumptions leading to dynamical cluster mass estimates. I conclude that it seems imperative that observers, modellers and theorists combine efforts and exchange ideas and data freely for the field to make a major leap forward.

Kuiper belt object 136108 Haumea is one of the most fascinating bodies in our solar system. Approximately 2000 × 1600 × 1000 km in size, it is one of the largest Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) and an unusually elongated one for its size. The shape of Haumea is the result of rotational deformation due to its extremely short 3.9-hour rotation period. Unlike other 1000 km-scale KBOs which are coated in methane ice the surface of Haumea is covered in almost pure H2O-ice. The bulk density of Haumea, estimated around 2.6 g cm−3, suggests a more rocky interior composition, different from the H2O-ice surface. Recently, Haumea has become the second KBO after Pluto to show observable signs of surface features. A region darker and redder than the average surface of Haumea has been identified, the composition and origin of which remain unknown. I discuss this recent finding and what it may tell us about Haumea.

Dwarf M stars comprise about 75 percent of all stars in the galaxy. For several years planets orbiting M stars have been discarded as suitable places for development of life. This paradigm now has changed and terrestrial-type planets within liquid-water habitable zones (LW-HZ) around M stars are reconsidered as possible hosts for life as we know it. Nevertheless, large amount of UV radiation is emitted during flares by this stars, and it is uncertain how these events could affect biological systems. In particular UV-C λ < 290nm) exhibits the most damaging effects for living organisms. To analyze the hypothesis that UV could set a limit for the development of extraterrestrial life, we studied the effect of UV-C treatment on halophile archaea cultures. Halophile archaea are extremophile organisms, they are exposed to intense solar UV radiation in their natural environment so they are generally regarded as relatively UV tolerant. Halophiles inhabits in hipersaline environments as salt lakes but also have been found in ancient salt deposits as halites and evaporites on Earth. Since evaporites have been detected in Martian meteorites, these organisms are proposed as plausible inhabitants of Mars-like planets. Our preliminary results show that even after UV damage, the surviving cells were able to resume growth with nearly normal kinetics.

The most dramatic display of variable activity of a comet is splitting of the nucleus. For the purpose of revealing the trends of splitting of comet nuclei and of formation of abnormal cometary tails, we have created two catalogues of comets: a catalogue of split nuclei, containing 99 comets, and a catalogue of comets with abnormal tails, including 60 objects. Statistical investigation reveals some general trends of these phenomena. The greatest number of recorded cases of nucleus splitting and abnormal tail (60%) occurs within an interval of heliocentric distance ranging from 0.6 AU to 1.6 AU (maximum at 1.1 AU) and geocentric distance ranging from 0.6 AU to 1.8 AU (maximum at 1.15 AU). Splitting of nuclei and abnormal tails are more often (75%) recorded close to the perihelia of the cometary orbits. Only 16% of splitting comets also exhibit abnormal tails. Some cases of nuclear splitting and large velocity (some km/s) eruptions of dust from a nucleus, as well as cases of abnormal tails developed at large heliocentric distances, may indicate collisions of comet nuclei with other bodies. Our results are of interest for the physics of comets, and for the distribution of meteoroids in solar system.

We present a new technique to analyze color–magnitude diagrams, such as those of stellar clusters, based on the cross-entropy global-optimization procedure. The method uses theoretical isochrones available in the literature and minimizes an objective function that describes the quality of a fit to the color–color and color–magnitude diagrams. The objective function is based on the two-dimensional distances of the points in the color–magnitude and color–color diagrams to the theoretical curves and is modified by weights that take into account the stellar distance to the observed cluster center, observed magnitude uncertainties and the King profile of the cluster, among others. The parameters determined simultaneously are distance, reddening, age and metalicity. The method uses a Monte Carlo approach to obtain uncertainties on the determined parameters for the cluster. We present results for 10 well-studied open clusters and show that the results are consistent with previous studies.

The goal of this work is to determine the properties of the stellar populations in a sample of LIRGs and ULIRGs. Using the ages as a clock we investigate: a) whether LIRGs-ULIRGs evolve into Radio Galaxies and QSOs; b) whether cool LIRGs-ULIRGs can evolve into warm LIRGs-ULIRGs; c) the merger sequence deduced from the morphological studies is reflected in the properties of the stellar populations. Using evolutionary synthesis models with high spectral resolution stellar libraries we have found that the intermediate age stellar population dominates at optical wavelengths. The stellar population in LIRGs is similar to ULIRGs and ULIRGs-QSOs transition objects.

The presence of convective motions in the atmospheres of metal-poor halo stars leads to systematic asymmetries of the emergent spectral line profiles. Since such line asymmetries are very small, they can be safely ignored for standard spectroscopic abundance analysis. However, when it comes to the determination of the 6Li/7Li isotopic ratio, q(Li)=n(6Li)/n(7Li), the intrinsic asymmetry of the 7Li line must be taken into account, because its signature is essentially indistinguishable from the presence of a weak 6Li blend in the red wing of the 7Li line. In this contribution we quantity the error of the inferred 6Li/7Li isotopic ratio that arises if the convective line asymmetry is ignored in the fitting of the λ6707 Å lithium blend. Our conclusion is that 6Li/7Li ratios derived by Asplund et al. (2006), using symmetric line profiles, must be reduced by typically Δq(Li) ≈ 0.015. This diminishes the number of certain 6Li detections from 9 to 4 stars or less, casting some doubt on the existence of a 6Li plateau.

The three young, massive star clusters found in the Galactic Centre region (Young Nuclear Cluster, the Arches and Quintuplet clusters) are among the six most massive star clusters in our Galaxy, with masses similar to low-mass, extragalactic starburst clusters. The conditions for star formation in this region are extreme and likely comparable to those found in the Hii regions in starburst galaxies and tidal-interaction zones of mergers. As the inner Galactic star clusters can be resolved, they can serve as templates for extragalactic starburst clusters. With knowledge of the spectral types, masses and ages of the individual stars, their stellar population can be studied in detail, allowing derivation of their present-day mass function (PDMF). The Quintuplet cluster, with an age of about 4 Myr, is the most extended of the three clusters and also displays a lower spatial density. To determine its mass function correctly, the distinction between cluster and field stars is therefore of particular importance. We present the first determination of a proper-motion-membership sample for the Quintuplet cluster. By comparing two high-precision astrometric VLT/NACO data sets with a time baseline of 5 years, the displacement of the Quintuplet cluster relative to the field population was measured and a selection of the proper-motion cluster members could be established, from which the PDMF can be derived.

We investigate selection and weighting of features by applying a random forest algorithm to multiwavelength data. Then we employ a k-nearest neighbor method to distinguish quasars from stars. We then compare the performance of this approach based on all features, weighted features, and selected features. We find that the k-nearest neighbor approach combined with random forests effectively separates quasars from stars.

Post-AGB (PAGB) stars are luminous objects of low and intermediate mass in a final and short stage of evolution in the transition between AGB stars and planetary nebulae (PNe). In this work we present a quantitative spectral analysis of some hot PAGBs based on high resolution spectra. The stellar parameters and chemical composition were obtained from the synthesis of non-LTE spectra.

Brazilian Solar Spectroscope (BSS) carry out high time (0.01–0.1 s) resolution solar spectral investigations within the frequency range 1–2.5 GHz on a daily basis. At the moment, a new site is imposed to this facility. This site change became necessary due to both factors: the growing level of radio frequency interference (RFI) signals at actual site and requirements of rising up a new building at the BSS antenna location. We present results of RFI signals search at INPE-Cachoeira Paulista area as purpose to define a new BSS site.

We observed two fields near M32 with the ACS/HRC (Program GO-10572, PI: T. Lauer) on board the Hubble Space Telescope, located at distances of about 1.8' and 5.4' (hereafter F1 and F2, respectively) from the center of M32. To obtain a very detailed and deep color-magnitude diagram (CMD) and to look for short period variability, we obtained time-series imaging of each field in 32-orbit-long exposures using the F435W (B) and F555W (V) filters, spanning a temporal range of 2 days per filter. We focus on our detection of variability on RR Lyrae variable stars, which represents the only way to obtain information about the presence of a very old population (larger than 10 Gyr) in M32 from optical data. Here we present results obtained from the detection of 31 RR Lyrae in these fields: 17 in F1 and 14 in F2. We claim we detected 7+4−3 RR Lyrae variables belonging to M32 in F1 thus indicating the presence of a metal-poor ancient population in M32.

Proper characterization of the host star to a planet is a key element to the understanding of its overall properties. The star has a direct impact through the modification of the structure and evolution of the planet atmosphere by being the overwhelmingly larger source of energy. The star plays a central role in shaping the structure, evolution, and even determining the mere existence of planetary atmospheres. The vast majority of the stellar flux is well understood thanks to the impressive progress made in the modeling of stellar atmospheres. At short wavelengths (X-rays to UV), however, the information is scarcer since the stellar emission does not originate in the photosphere but in the chromospheric and coronal regions, which are much less understood. The same can be said about particle emissions, with a strong impact on planetary atmospheres, because a detailed description of the time-evolution of stellar wind is still lacking. Here we review our current understanding of the flux and particle emissions of the Sun and low-mass stars and briefly address their impact in the context of planetary atmospheres.

We analyze a sample of 21 super-metal-rich (SMR) stars, using high-resolution échelle spectra obtained with the Fiber-fed Extended Range Optical Spectrograph at the 1.5m ESO telescope. The metallicities are in the range 0.07 ≤ [Fe/H] ≤ 0.45, 3 of them in common with Pompéia et al. (2009). Geneva photometry, astrometric data from Hipparcos, and radial velocities from CORAVEL are available for these stars. The peculiar kinematics suggests the thin disk close to the bulge as the probable birthplace of these stars (Grenon 1999). From Hipparcos data, it appears that the turnoff of this population indicates an age of 10-11 Gyr (Grenon 1999). Detailed analysis of the sample stars is carried out, and atmospheric parameters are derived from spectroscopic and photometric determinations. Oxygen abundances of these stars are derived, and [O/Fe] overabundances up to +0.35 are found.

1. McWilliam and Zoccali (2009) show the existence of two Red Clump populations towards the Galactic bulge, based on 2MASS data. 2.Measured [Mg/Fe], [Al/Fe], and [La/Eu] ratios in the bulge are consistent with a rapid formation timescale (<1Gyr), which also requires a slightly top-heavy IMF to reproduce the mean bulge metallicity. The [C/O] and [O/Fe] ratios are consistent if their predicted metal-dependent yields from massive stars with winds are considered. The decline in explosive [α/Fe] (Si, Ca, and Ti) can only be understood if their yields also decline with metallicity above [Fe/H]~−1.

Starburst clusters are spectacular young and dense stellar systems containing copious numbers of massive O-type and Wolf–Rayet stars. These objects depict a stellar population comprising stars over the entire mass range, making them ideal objects to study cluster formation and evolution as well as to test and calibrate stellar evolutionary models. Among the Galactic spiral-arm starburst clusters, NGC 3603 Young Cluster (YC), which is located in the Carina spiral arm, is the youngest and most compact one. Galactic starburst clusters also serve as templates for extragalactic super star clusters as observed, e.g., in the Antennae galaxies. Based on two epochs (obtained 10 yr apart) of high-quality astrometric HST/WFPC2 observations, we derive individual proper motions for several hundred stars. The proper motions enable us to distinguish cluster members from field stars, and to derive a first estimate of the internal cluster dynamics. Photometry of the clean sample of cluster stars allows us to create color–magnitude diagrams (CMDs) that are not contaminated by field stars, and to compare the sequence of cluster members with different sets of theoretical isochrones and evolutionary tracks. We clearly identify a lower-mass pre-main-sequence and a higher-mass main-sequence stellar population in NGC 3603. A particular focus of our comparison with theoretical isochrones is the exact shape and extent of the pre-main-sequence/main-sequence transition region in NGC 3603 YC. The proper motions also contain dynamical information. From this, we derive a velocity dispersion, which leads to the first dynamical mass estimate of the NGC 3603 cluster. We also investigate whether or not NGC 3603 YC is virialized, and study evidence for primordial versus dynamical mass segregation. Past and future evolution of NGC 3603 YC can be studied and will tell us about the clusters ‘fate’ and its long-term survival chances.

Using an AGN sample from the INTEGRAL all-sky survey, we show that the density fluctuations of matter in the local universe translate linearly into the density fluctuations of accreting supermassive black holes. Our results imply that hard X-ray emitting AGNs are unbiased tracers of the galaxy population in the nearby universe and SMBH activity is independent of the density of galaxies.

We have obtained high resolution, high S/N spectra of the RS CVn binary IM Peg using UVES spectrograph at Kueyen 8.2m telescope of ESO VLT. We use Doppler imaging techniques to obtain stellar surface temperature maps from the UVES data. The TempMap code allows us to use surface differential rotation as an input parameter and thus to try to construct the rotation pattern on the stellar surface as part of the inversion process. The UVES observations are combined with spectroscopic observations from another time period obtained at the STELLA observatory. We obtain stellar surface temperature maps also from these spectra. These Doppler images are used to study the magnetic activity and surface differential rotation on IM Peg.

While characterization of the MBH–σ* relationship in AGNs has improved due to the increase in available data and the improvement in accuracy of both MBH and σ* measurements, additional data at the high-luminosity end of the distribution of quasars are needed, as recent studies indicate that perhaps the relation steepens in this regime. To this end, we present three new measurements in objects at the high-luminosity end of the relation.