Milky Way and Nearby Galaxies

Start year
1994
End year
2021
Organizational Unit

Grants related:

    General
    Description

    The general aim of the project is to research the structure, evolutionary history and formation of galaxies through the study of their resolved stellar populations, both from photometry and spectroscopy. The group research concentrates in the most nearby objects, namely the Local Group galaxies including the Milky Way and M33 under the hypothesis that they are a good representation of the general population of galaxies in the Universe.

    The project can be divided in four research lines:

    I. Star formation history in the Local Group.

    The goal is to characterise the spatial and temporal structure of the galaxies of the Local Group through the observations of individual stars. The fundamental aim is to derive the detailed star formation history (SFH) of a given galaxy in all its evolutionary stages, in order to determine the impact of cosmological (e.g. reionization, self-shielding) and local processes (e.g. gas sweeping by supernovas, tidal forces, stellar migration).

    II. Multiple stellar populations in globular clusters.

    At odds of what it is classically predicted, there is evidence that globular clusters (GC) host more than one stellar population with different chemical composition. HST photometric observations of GC show strong evidence of multiple main sequences in the CMDs. The aim of this line is to characterise the aforementioned multiple populations in GC.

    III. Structure and formation of the Milky Way.

    The main purpose of this research line is to study the Milky Way via by using GAIA data (spacebased), and the ESO-VVV survey (Vista Telescope). These data are going to provide a perfect opportunity to study the star formation history of the Galactic disk and bulge. In order to use GAIA and VVV data we need to adapt the tools developed by our group to study stellar populations.

    IV. Stellar evolution and synthetic color-magnitude diagram.

    We have developed a new stellar evolutionary library. There is the need in the scientific community to increase the reliability and accuracy in the stellar models computation using the most updated results in Physics, such as the equation of state, new opacities, and nuclear sections.

    Milestones

    1. Development of the web site http://basti-iac.oa-teramo.inaf.it for the BaSTI stellar evolution library
    2. Obtention of near-infrared PSF photometry of the full VVV disk region (220 sq. deg between 294.7° ≤ l ≤ 350.0° and |b| ≤ 2.25°) in J and Ks bands
    3. Computation of a open access data base of "cromosomic maps" for all the object of the "HST Legacy Project on Globular Clusters".
    4. Determination of the star formation history of three Ultra-fain Dwarfs (UFD): Bootes I, Canes Venatici II y Leo IV

    Related publications

    • Discovery of an X-Ray Photoionized Optical Nebula and a Radio Nebula Associated with the ULX NGC 4861 X-1
      We have conducted long-slit spectroscopic observations and analyzed archival radio data for the ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) NGC 4861 X-1. Our spectral line analysis unveils NGC 4861 X-1 as the fourth ULX situated within an X-ray photoionized nebula, following three previous findings made approximately two decades ago. Remarkably, we discover
      Gong, Hang et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2023
      Citations
      0
    • Internal kinematics of dwarf satellites of MW/M31-like galaxies in TNG50
      We present a kinematic study of a thousand of dwarf satellites of MW/M31-like hosts from the IllustrisTNG50 simulation. Internal kinematics were derived for all the snapshots to obtain a historical record of their rotation velocity in the plane of the sky (|V T|) and the amplitude of their velocity gradients along the line of sight ($A_{\rm grad}^
      Martínez-García, Alberto Manuel et al.

      Advertised on:

      12
      2023
      Citations
      4
    • Panning for gold, but finding helium: Discovery of the ultra-stripped supernova SN 2019wxt from gravitational-wave follow-up observations
      We present the results from multi-wavelength observations of a transient discovered during an intensive follow-up campaign of S191213g, a gravitational wave (GW) event reported by the LIGO-Virgo Collaboration as a possible binary neutron star merger in a low latency search. This search yielded SN 2019wxt, a young transient in a galaxy whose sky
      Agudo, I. et al.

      Advertised on:

      7
      2023
      Citations
      8
    • Limited impact of jet-induced feedback in the multi-phase nuclear interstellar medium of 4C12.50
      Context. 4C12.50 (IRAS 13451+1232) at z = 0.122 is an ultraluminous infared radio galaxy that has often been proposed as a prime candidate for the link between ultraluminous infared galaxies and young radio galaxies. It is also an interesting target to investigate whether and how radio-induced feedback affects the evolution of galaxies in the early
      Villar Martín, M. et al.

      Advertised on:

      5
      2023
      Citations
      5
    • Mass Models of the Milky Way and Estimation of Its Mass from the Gaia DR3 Data Set
      We use data from the Gaia DR3 data set to estimate the mass of the Milky Way (MW) by analyzing the rotation curve in the range of distances 5 to 28 kpc. We consider three mass models: The first model adds a spherical dark matter (DM) halo, following the Navarro-Frenk-White (NFW) profile, to the known stellar components. The second model assumes
      Sylos Labini, Francesco et al.

      Advertised on:

      3
      2023
      Citations
      20
    • The Hubble Space Telescope UV Legacy Survey of Galactic Globular Clusters. XXIV. Differences in Internal Kinematics of Multiple Stellar Populations
      Our understanding of the kinematic properties of multiple stellar populations (mPOPs) in Galactic globular clusters (GCs) is still limited compared to what we know about their chemical and photometric characteristics. Such limitation arises from the lack of a comprehensive observational investigation of this topic. Here we present the first
      Libralato, Mattia et al.

      Advertised on:

      2
      2023
      Citations
      15
    • Evidence for Population-dependent Vertical Motions and the Long-lived Nonsteady Lopsided Milky Way Warp
      We present a Galactic disk vertical velocity analysis using OB type stars (OB stars), red clump (RC) stars, and main-sequence turnoff (MSTO) stars with different average age populations crossmatched with LAMOST DR5 and Gaia DR3. We show that the vertical velocities of the three populations clearly vary with the Galactocentric distance (R) and the
      Li, Xiang et al.

      Advertised on:

      2
      2023
      Citations
      7
    • Mapping the Milky Way Disk with Gaia DR3: 3D Extended Kinematic Maps and Rotation Curve to ≈30 kpc
      We apply a statistical deconvolution of the parallax errors based on Lucy's inversion method (LIM) to the Gaia DR3 sources to measure their 3D velocity components in the range of Galactocentric distances R between 8 and 30 kpc with their corresponding errors and rms values. We find results that are consistent with those obtained by applying LIM to
      Wang, Hai-Feng et al.

      Advertised on:

      1
      2023
      Citations
      36
    • Tidally induced velocity gradients in the Milky Way dwarf spheroidal satellites
      We present a kinematic study of six dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSph) satellites of the Milky Way (MW), namely Carina, Draco, Fornax, Sculptor, Sextans, and Ursa Minor. We combine proper motions (PMs) from the Gaia Data Release 3 (DR3) and line-of-sight velocities (v los) from the literature to derive their 3D internal kinematics and to study the
      Martínez-García, Alberto Manuel et al.

      Advertised on:

      1
      2023
      Citations
      10
    • EMIR, the near-infrared camera and multi-object spectrograph for the GTC. EMIR at GTC
      We present EMIR, a powerful near-infrared (NIR) camera and multi-object spectrograph (MOS) installed at the Nasmyth focus of the 10.4 m GTC. EMIR was commissioned in mid-2016 and is offered as a common-user instrument. It provides spectral coverage of 0.9-2.5 µm over a field of view (FOV) of 6.67' × 6.67' in imaging mode, and 6.67' × 4' in
      Garzón, F. et al.

      Advertised on:

      11
      2022
      Citations
      10
    • Analysing the structure of the bulge with Mira variables
      Context. The Galactic bulge at latitude 4 < |b|(deg) < 10 was claimed to show an X-shape, which means that stellar density distributions along the line of sight have a double peak. However, this double peak is only observed with the red-clump population, and doubt has been cast on its use as a perfect standard candle. As such, a boxy bulge without
      Chrobáková, Ž. et al.

      Advertised on:

      10
      2022
      Citations
      2
    • StraKLIP: A Novel Pipeline for Detection and Characterization of Close-in Faint Companions through the Karhunen-Loéve Image Processing Algorithm
      We present a new pipeline developed to detect and characterize faint astronomical companions at small angular separation from the host star using sets of wide-field imaging observations not specifically designed for high-contrast imaging analysis. The core of the pipeline relies on Karhunen-Loéve truncated transformation of the reference point
      Strampelli, Giovanni M. et al.

      Advertised on:

      10
      2022
      Citations
      1
    • The Hubble Space Telescope UV Legacy Survey of Galactic Globular Clusters. XXIII. Proper-motion Catalogs and Internal Kinematics
      A number of studies based on the data collected by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) GO-13297 program "HST Legacy Survey of Galactic Globular Clusters: Shedding UV Light on Their Populations and Formation" have investigated the photometric properties of a large sample of Galactic globular clusters and revolutionized our understanding of their
      Libralato, Mattia et al.

      Advertised on:

      8
      2022
      Citations
      49
    • Warp and flare of the Galactic disc revealed with supergiants by Gaia EDR3
      Context. The outer Galactic disc contains some features such as the warp and flare, whose origin is still debated. The Gaia data provide an excellent opportunity to probe the Galactic disc at large distances and study these features. Aims: We derive the density distributions of the average (old) whole population and the supergiants (representative
      Chrobáková, Ž. et al.

      Advertised on:

      8
      2022
      Citations
      13
    • Detection of Gravitational Redshift in Open Cluster Nondegenerate Stars
      A key observational prediction of Einstein's Equivalence Principle is that light undergoes redshift when it escapes from a gravitational field. Although astrophysics provides a wide variety of physical conditions in which this redshift should be significant, until very recently the observational evidence for this gravitational effect was limited to
      Gutiérrez, Carlos M. et al.

      Advertised on:

      4
      2022
      Citations
      3
    • SEGUE-2: Old Milky Way Stars Near and Far
      The Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration 2 (SEGUE-2) obtained 128,288 low-resolution spectra (R ~ 1800) of 118,958 unique stars in the first year of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (2008-2009). SEGUE-2 targeted prioritized distant halo tracers (blue horizontal-branch stars, K giants, and M giants) and metal-poor or
      Rockosi, Constance M. et al.

      Advertised on:

      4
      2022
      Citations
      36
    • Internal rotation of Milky Way dwarf spheroidal satellites with Gaia Early Data Release 3
      We present an analysis of the kinematics of 14 satellites of the Milky Way (MW). We use proper motions (PMs) from the Gaia Early Data Release 3 (EDR3) and line-of-sight velocities (v los) available in the literature to derive the systemic 3D motion of these systems. For six of them, namely the Carina, Draco, Fornax, Sculptor, Sextans, and Ursa
      Martínez-García, Alberto Manuel et al.

      Advertised on:

      8
      2021
      Citations
      23
    • Constraining the solar neighbourhood age-metallicity relation from white dwarf-main sequence binaries
      The age-metallicity relation (AMR) is a fundamental tool for constraining the chemical evolution of the Galactic disc. In this work, we analyse the observational properties of this relation using binary stars that have not interacted consisting of a white dwarf (WD) - from which we can derive the total age of the system - and a main sequence (MS)
      Rebassa-Mansergas, A. et al.

      Advertised on:

      8
      2021
      Citations
      31
    • Exploring nine simultaneously occurring transients on April 12th 1950
      Nine point sources appeared within half an hour on a region within ∼? 10 arcmin of a red-sensitive photographic plate taken in April 1950 as part of the historic Palomar Sky Survey. All nine sources are absent on both previous and later photographic images, and absent in modern surveys with CCD detectors which go several magnitudes deeper. We
      Villarroel, Beatriz et al.

      Advertised on:

      0
      2021
      Citations
      14
    • The Cluster HEritage project with XMM-Newton: Mass Assembly and Thermodynamics at the Endpoint of structure formation. I. Programme overview
      The Cluster HEritage project with XMM-Newton - Mass Assembly and Thermodynamics at the Endpoint of structure formation (CHEX-MATE) is a three-mega-second Multi-Year Heritage Programme to obtain X-ray observations of a minimally-biased, signal-to-noise-limited sample of 118 galaxy clusters detected by Planck through the Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect. The
      CHEX-MATE Collaboration et al.

      Advertised on:

      6
      2021
      Citations
      68

    Related talks

    No related talks were found.

    Related conferences

    No related conferences were found.