The NIR Ca ii triplet absorption lines have proven to be an important tool for quantitative spectroscopy of individual red giant branch stars in the Local Group, providing a better understanding of metallicities of stars in the Milky Way and dwarf galaxies and thereby an opportunity to constrain their chemical evolution processes. An interesting

Context. Very few examples of luminous blue variable (LBV) stars or LBV candidates (LBVc) are known, particularly at metallicities below that of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). The LBV phase is known to be crucial for the evolution of massive stars, and its behavior with metallicity is very poorly known. Variable star V39 in IC 1613 is a well

We have obtained [Mg/Fe] for around 77% of the stars of the MILES library of stellar spectra in order to include this important information into simple stellar population (SSP) models. The abundance ratios, which were carefully calibrated to a single uniform scale, were obtained through a compilation from high spectral resolution works plus robust

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This is a pilot study part of a larger program devoted to understand the influence of bars in the evolution of galaxy disks. Some of the goals of this observational program are to compare the stellar metallicity gradients of galaxies with and without bars, the role of bars in the redistribution of mass and angular momentum and to study the

Our new infrared spectra of asteroid 24 Themis indicate water ice is not only present but also widespread on its surface. Our identification of water ice agrees with recent preliminary results, and our spectra also show evidence of organic compounds on this asteroid.