We study the population of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) by means of full evolutionary models of stars of mass 1 M⊙ ≤ M ≤ 8 M⊙, evolved through the thermally pulsing phase. The models also account for dust production in the circumstellar envelope. We compare Spitzer infrared colours with results from

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We present high signal-to-noise Keck spectra for 10 globular clusters associated with the giant Fornax elliptical galaxy NGC 1399 and compare measured line indices with current stellar population models. Our data convincingly demonstrate, for the first time, that at least some of the clusters in a giant elliptical galaxy have supersolar abundance

We have selected a sample of nearby galaxies where an AGN (Seyfert or LINER) coexists with circumnuclear star formation. We use the highest spatial resolution data available now (HST UV, optical, and near-infrared [IR]; radio) and in the future (mid-IR with Spitzer and CanariCam) with spatial resolutions of 3-25 pc for our sample. The main goal of

We present AKARI/IRC and Spitzer/IRS observations of a selected sample of galactic IRAS sources considered to be heavily obscured AGB / post-AGB stars based on their characteristic IRAS colours. All of them are completely invisible in the optical range but extremely bright in the infrared. Based on AKARI and Spitzer spectroscopy and using DUSTY we

We present AKARI/IRC observations of a sample of six extremely red IRAS sources, of which three are variable OH/IR stars and the rest are early post-AGB stars. The OH/IR stars show a red continuum with the expected strong 10 μm silicate absorption feature, while the post-AGB stars show an even redder continuum accompanied with a comparably weak