The Cocoon nebula is an apparently spherical Galactic HII region ionized by a single star (BD+46 3474). This nebula seems to be appropriate to investigate the chemical behavior of oxygen and other heavy elements from two different points of view: a detailed analysis of the chemical content of the ionized gas through nebular spectrophotometry and a

In a search for common proper motion companions using the VISTA Hemisphere Survey (VHS) and the 2MASS catalogs we have identified a very red (J-{{K}s}=2.47 mag) late-L dwarf companion of a previously unrecognized M dwarf VHS J125601.92-125723.9 (hereafter VHS 1256-1257), located at a projected angular separation of 8.″ 06 ± 0.″ 03. In this work we

Aims: We analyze a sample of 3944 low-resolution (R ~ 2000) optical spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), focusing on stars with effective temperatures 5800 ≤ Teff ≤ 6300 K, and distances from the Milky Way plane in excess of 5 kpc, and determine their abundances of Fe, Ca, and Mg. Methods: We followed the same methodology as in the

All studies of unresolved stellar populations rely on a proper characterization of the stellar initial mass function (IMF), i.e. the distribution of stellar masses at birth. Over the past few years, several avenues of research have suggested a systematic variation of the IMF in early-type galaxies, with a departure from the standard IMF in the most

Spectroscopic data of low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXB) can provide valuable information on supernova properties. In these systems the companion star is probably close enough to be polluted by some of the matter ejected during the supernova (SN) event of the progenitor of the compact object. We present high-resolution spectra, acquired with UES@WHT

We use integral field spectroscopy of 13 disk galaxies in the cluster AC114 at z ˜ 0.31 in an attempt to disentangle the physical processes responsible for the transformation of spiral galaxies in clusters. Our sample is selected to display a dominant young stellar population, as indicated by strong Hδ absorption lines in their integrated spectra