Solar wavefront sensing has been a challenge for astrophysical instrumentalists, due to the low contrast between the Sun and the sky background compared to night-time observations, which limits the performance of adaptive optics systems. Wavefront correction in solar physics requires the analysis of extended images; meanwhile, at night the displacement of a punctual object is analysed. This technique limits the spatial resolution, and therefore the accuracy in the wavefront reconstruction. To solve this problem, a new method of direct wavefront sensing without the need for image formation
Nuclear star clusters are dense and compact stellar systems, with sizes of a few parsecs, found at the centers of many galaxies. Their formation is thought to be closely connected to the assembly history of their host galaxies, and astronomers think that these clusters contain important clues about how galaxies formed and evolved over cosmic time. Recent studies suggest that different formation pathways may operate in late- and early-type galaxies, but the dominant mechanisms and their dependence on galaxy morphology remain unclear. While most observational studies have focused on early-type
We present, for the first time, model spectra of single-age, single-metallicity stellar populations computed with the E-MILES evolutionary synthesis code incorporating an environment-dependent, variable galaxy-wide initial mass function (gwIMF). This gwIMF, calculated using the GalIMF code, is rooted in the integrated galactic initial mass function (IGIMF) theory, which predicts IMF variations as a function of the star formation rate and the metallicity. By coupling these two codes, we generated a comprehensive library of single-burst stellar population spectra uniquely sensitive to gwIMF