Projects
LIST OF SELECTED, CURRENTLY ON-GOING PROJECTS WITHIN OUR GROUP.
- The star formation history of the Milky Way using data from the Gaia satellite DR2 to reconstruct the formation of the Galactic bulge, disc, and halo, and to infer the effect of major merges such as that of the Sagittarius dSph galaxy.
- The star formation history and large scale structure of the Magellanic Clouds based on wide field photometric and spectroscopic survey, such as the SMASH project where we have a leading role in the deriving the SFH from deep CMD.
- Star Formation Histories of a Local Group dwarf galaxies using mostly HST data to study Milky Way or M31 satellites, as well as more distant isolated galaxies.
- Variable stars as tracers of stellar populations in galaxies provide complementary information on the evolution of galaxies, since the most ancient epochs. We are investigatin the variable star content in all the bright Local Group galaxies, using both HST and wide-field ground-based data.
- Formation and Evolution of Local Group Dwarf Galaxies from the study of their wide-area structural, metallicity and kinematic properties and orbital motions; we are also interested in the determination of the dark matter halo properties of these galaxies and in understanding how these might be impacted by baryonic effects, accretion/mergers and interactions with the large Local Group spirals. Here links to recent press releases as examples of the work on observationally based estimates of the early impact of supernovae feedback on dark matter halo properties, discoveries of likely accretion/merger events in dwarf galaxies and the use of Gaia DR2 data for the determination of the systemic motions of the system of Milky Way satellites.
- Galaxy properties from integrated light spectroscopy versus resolved stellar population studies
- The properties of the dark matter and stellar halo of the Milky Way
- We are also involved in the development of the Galactic Archaeology survey of the WHT/WEAVE spectrograph (G. Battaglia: co-lead of the Galactic Archaelogy sub-survey at low resolution at high latitude). We are international affiliates to the LSST survey and involved as well in the science case for future facilities or concept studies, e.g. E-ELT/HARMONI, E-ELT/MOSAIC, CFHT/MSE, CASTOR.