The short transition phase between asymptotic giant branch stars (AGB; when circumstellar envelopes rich in small organic molecules are efficiently created) and planetary nebulae (PNe) represents a most active phase of molecular synthesis. Different complex organic molecules - e.g., polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and fullerenes - have been

The use of red colour as the basis for selecting candidate high redshift dusty galaxies from surveys made with Herschel has proved highly successful. The highest redshift such object, HFLS3, lies at z = 6.34 and numerous other sources have been found. Spectroscopic followup confirms that most of these lie at z > 4. These sources are found in such

Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars represent one of the main stellar sources for production of dust in the Universe. We provide a description of the formation and growth of dust particles in the circumstellar envelope of AGBs, starting from detailed calculations of the AGB evolutionary phase. We use stellar population synthesis to interpret the

We present a new method (BUBBLY) for detecting expanding components of ionized gas using integral field spectroscopy, showing its capabilities not only in detecting but also in obtaining the key physical parameters of the expanding shells: their expansion velocities and masses. The main advantages are that the detection is performed automatically

In this work we explore how the use of dynamical model atmospheres has an impact on the chemical abundances derived in O-rich (massive) AGB stars. In particular, we study the effect on the Rb and Zr abundances derived from the resonant 7800 Å Rb I line and the 6474 Å ZrO bandhead, respectively. Interestingly, our new Rb abundances, including a

The chemical content of the planetary nebula NGC 3918 is investigated through deep, high-resolution (R˜40,000) UVES at VLT spectrophotometric data. We identify and measure more than 750 emission lines, making ours one of the deepest spectra ever taken for a planetary nebula. Among these lines we detect very faint lines of several neutron-capture