We present the first release of the X-shooter Spectral Library (XSL). This release contains 237 stars. The spectra in this release span a wavelength range of 3000-10 200 Å and have been observed at a resolving power of R ≡ λ/ Δλ ~ 10 000. The spectra were obtained at ESO's 8-m Very Large Telescope (VLT). The sample contains O-M, long-period

We study the relationship between age, metallicity, and α-enhancement of FGK stars in the Galactic disk. The results are based upon the analysis of high-resolution UVES spectra from the Gaia-ESO large stellar survey. We explore the limitations of the observed dataset, i.e. the accuracy of stellar parameters and the selection effects that are caused

The Gaia-ESO Survey is a large public spectroscopic survey that aims to derive radial velocities and fundamental parameters of about 105 Milky Way stars in the field and in clusters. Observations are carried out with the multi-object optical spectrograph FLAMES, using simultaneously the medium-resolution (R ~ 20 000) GIRAFFE spectrograph and the

We present an analysis of the star formation history (SFH) of a field near the half-light radius in the Local Group dwarf irregular galaxy IC 1613 based on deep Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys imaging. Our observations reach the oldest main sequence turn-off, allowing a time resolution at the oldest ages of ~1 Gyr. Our analysis

We study the Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) at a prominence-corona transition region in a non-linear regime. Our aim is to understand how the presence of neutral atoms in the prominence plasma influences the instability growth rate, as well as the evolution of velocity, magnetic field vector, and thermodynamic parameters of turbulent drops. We

The Hubble Frontier Fields program combines the capabilities of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) with the gravitational lensing of massive galaxy clusters to probe the distant universe to an unprecedented depth. Here, we present the results of the first combined HST and Spitzer observations of the cluster A-2744. We combine the full near-infrared