Published in The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review
The mass of a star is the most fundamental parameter for its structure, evolution, and final fate. It is particularly important for any kind of stellar archaeology and characterization of exoplanets. There exist a variety of methods in astronomy to estimate or determine it. In this review we present a significant number of such methods, beginning w...
Published in The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review
Compact steep-spectrum (CSS) and peaked-spectrum (PS) radio sources are compact, powerful radio sources. The multi-frequency observational properties and current theories are reviewed with emphasis on developments since the earlier review of O’Dea (PASP 110:493–532, https://doi.org/10.1086/316162, 1998). There are three main hypotheses for the natu...
Published in The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review
Nearby galaxies offer unique laboratories allowing multi-wavelength spatially resolved studies of the interstellar medium, star formation and nuclear activity across a broad range of physical conditions. In particular, detailed studies of individual local luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) are crucial for gaining a better understanding of these pro...
Published in The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review
Magnetic fields play a fundamental role for interior and atmospheric properties of M dwarfs and greatly influence terrestrial planets orbiting in the habitable zones of these low-mass stars. Determination of the strength and topology of magnetic fields, both on stellar surfaces and throughout the extended stellar magnetospheres, is a key ingredient...
Published in The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review
Weak gravitational lensing of background galaxies provides a direct probe of the projected matter distribution in and around galaxy clusters. Here, we present a self-contained pedagogical review of cluster–galaxy weak lensing, covering a range of topics relevant to its cosmological and astrophysical applications. We begin by reviewing the theoretic...
Published in The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review
We present a technique-led review of the progression of precise radio astrometry, from the first demonstrations, half a century ago, until to date and into the future. We cover the developments that have been fundamental to allow high accuracy and precision astrometry to be regularly achieved. We review the opportunities provided by the next genera...
Published in The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review
The existence of star-to-star light-element abundance variations in massive Galactic and extragalactic star clusters has fairly recently superseded the traditional paradigm of individual clusters hosting stars with the same age, and uniform chemical composition. Several scenarios have been put forward to explain the origin of this multiple stellar ...
Published in The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review
We review the current knowledge about nuclear star clusters (NSCs), and the spectacularly dense and massive assemblies of stars found at the centers of most galaxies. Recent observational and theoretical works suggest that many NSC properties, including their masses, densities, and stellar populations, vary with the properties of their host galaxie...
Published in The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review
The recent GAIA DR2 measurements of distances to galactic novae have allowed to re-analyse some properties of nova populations in the Milky Way and in external galaxies on new and more solid empirical bases. In some cases, we have been able to confirm results previously obtained, such as the concept of nova populations into two classes of objects, ...
Published in The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review
Neutral-atomic and molecular outflows are a common occurrence in galaxies, near and far. They operate over the full extent of their galaxy hosts, from the innermost regions of galactic nuclei to the outermost reaches of galaxy halos. They carry a substantial amount of material that would otherwise have been used to form new stars. These cool outflo...
