The bulge contribution to the inner density profile of a galaxy is well traced by the bulge's NIR surface brightness profile. We map the surface brightness...
Density wave triggered star formation in grand design spirals
In normal spiral galaxies the arms are the main sites for star formation. This is the cause of their optical contrast compared with the rest of the disc. The...
Departures from axial symmetry, and starburst activity, in the bulge of NGC 4736
Evidence for circumnuclear starbursts in spiral galaxies can take the form of a blue excess near the nucleus, but more frequently (because of dust extinction) H...
Depleted diffuse bands in circumstellar envelopes of post-AGB stars
We report on new results in the search for diffuse bands, signatures of still unknown origin, in the circumstellar envelopes of evolved (post-AGB) stars.
Derivation of star formation histories through deep color-magnitude diagrams: the dependency on stellar evolution models.
We review the state of the art of the derivation of star formation histories from color-magnitude diagrams reaching the oldest main sequence turnoffs. From the...
Deriving the dynamical masses of Ultra-Luminous X-ray Sources with OSIRIS
Ultra Luminous X-ray Sources (ULXs) are extragalactic X-ray point sources with L_X ˜ 10^39-10^41 erg s^-1 discovered in the 80s with the Einstein satellite and...
Despite much work, the connection between dwarf elliptical galaxies (dEs) and dwarf irregulars (dIs) remains unclear. Recently, we found that the surface...
Design and initial test results of a CCD fan-out board with integrated preamplifier and ESD protection for the scientific instrument ELMER at the GTC 10-m telescope
The scientific instrument ELMER for the GTC 10-m telescope integrates an E2V Technologies CCD44-82 detector and can optionally use the MIT/LL CCID-20 device...