Near-infrared spectroscopic surveys have uncovered a population of short-period, blended-light spectral binaries composed of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs. These systems are amenable to orbit determination and individual mass measurements via astrometric monitoring. Here, we present first results of a multiyear campaign to obtain high-precision

The galaxy-wide stellar initial mass function (gwIMF) of a galaxy in dependence on its metallicity and star formation rate can be calculated by the integrated galactic IMF (IGIMF) theory. This theory has been applied in a study of the chemical evolution of the ultra-faint dwarf (UFD) satellite galaxies, but failed to reproduce the data. Here, we

Many problems in contemporary astrophysics—from understanding the formation of black holes to untangling the chemical evolution of galaxies—rely on knowledge about binary stars. This, in turn, depends on the discovery and characterization of binary companions for large numbers of different kinds of stars in different chemical and dynamical

Extragalactic planetary nebulae (PNe) are detectable through relatively strong nebulous [O III] emission and act as direct probes into the local stellar population. Because they have an apparently universal invariant magnitude cut-off, PNe are also considered to be a remarkable standard candle for distance estimation. Through detecting PNe within