H II regions are clouds of glowing, ionised gas associated with regions of recent star formation. By studying the light emitted by these regions, we can learn about their physical conditions and chemical composition, providing important clues about how stars and galaxies form and evolve. One of the key properties we need to know is the temperature of the gas. We can measure it from the emission lines of different chemical elements, which probe different parts of an H II region. However, it is not always possible to measure all these temperatures directly. In these cases, we need to estimate
Research on the formation, origin, and evolution of the dichotomy between the thin and thick disk components of the Milky Way has been a major topic of study, as it is key to understanding how our Galaxy formed. However, this is not an easy task, since populations defined by their morphology or kinematics show a mixture of chemically distinct stellar populations. Age therefore becomes a fundamental parameter for understanding the evolution of the Galactic disk. Our goal is to derive the age and metallicity distributions of the thin and thick disks defined kinematically, in order to reveal
Low-mass X-ray binaries are systems in which a star transfers matter onto a compact object—either a black hole or a neutron star—producing energetic outbursts. During these events, their optical spectra provide a way to study extreme processes of accretion and matter ejection. While some spectroscopic features have been analysed in detail (e.g., revealing disc expansion and the presence of optical winds), the appearance of broad absorptions in the optical regime has traditionally been neglected. In this work, we present the first systematic study of these broad absorptions. We carry out the