Star formation rates (SFRs) of galaxies are commonly calculated by converting the measured Hα luminosities (LHα) into current SFRs. This conversion is based on a constant initial mass function (IMF) independent of the total SFR. As was recently recognized, the maximum stellar mass in a star cluster is limited by the embedded total cluster mass and

Patat et al. recently inferred the existence of circumstellar material around a normal Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) for the first time, finding time-variable Na I D absorption lines in the spectrum of SN 2006X. We present high-resolution spectroscopy of the bright SN Ia 2007af at three epochs and search for variability in any of the Na D absorption

We report early follow-up observations of the error box of the short burst GRB 050813 using the telescopes at Calar Alto and Observatorio Sierra Nevada, followed by deep VLT FORS2 I-band observations obtained under very good seeing conditions 5.7 and 11.7 days after the event. Neither a fading afterglow nor a rising SN component was found, so the

The Galaxy Origins and Young Assembly (GOYA) survey is designed to study the formation and evolution of 1

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Context: Inversion techniques are the most powerful methods to obtain information about the thermodynamical and magnetic properties of solar and stellar atmospheres. In the recent years, we have witnessed the development of highly sophisticated inversion codes that are now widely applied to spectro-polarimetric observations. The majority of these