We propose a 1.4 hr program to observe, with IRS, the near-Earth asteroid 161273 (1999 JU3), the primary target of two proposed spacecraft missions: the European Space Agency (ESA) MARCO POLO sample return mission and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Hyabusa-2 mission. These observations will provide characterization of the

The VLT-FLAMES Survey of Massive Stars was an ESO Large Programme to understand rotational mixing and stellar mass loss in different metallicity environments, in order to better constrain massive star evolution. We gathered high-quality spectra of over 800 stars in the Galaxy and in the Magellanic Clouds. A sample of this size is unprecedented

Rotation has become an important element in evolutionary models of massive stars, specifically via the prediction of rotational mixing. Here we study a sample of stars, including rapid rotators, to constrain such models and use nitrogen enrichments as a probe of the mixing process. Chemical compositions (C, N, O, Mg, and Si) have been estimated for

We present a catalogue of point-source Hα emission-line objects selected from the INT/WFC Photometric Hα Survey (IPHAS) of the northern Galactic plane. The catalogue covers the magnitude range 13 13) emission-line objects than were previously known in the Milky Way.

The determination of the star formation history of galaxies and the origin of the ISM fuel is one of the main unsolved issues in the study of the formation and evolution of galaxies. By now it appears that supermassive black holes play a major role in regulating the amount of gas, and thus the star formation in their host system. To understand

Ca II triplet spectroscopy has been used to derive stellar metallicities for individual stars in four Large Magellanic Cloud fields situated at galactocentric distances of 3°, 5°, 6°, and 8° to the north of the bar. Observed metallicity distributions show a well-defined peak, with a tail toward low metallicities. The mean metallicity remains