• CAB-Masivas joins ULLYSES Odyssey

    In 2018 the director of Hubble Space Telescope announced his decision to devote 1000 orbits to exploit the observatory’s unique UV capabilities before it shuts down. Since then, a team of scientist and technicians are working hard to assemble a list of targets of interest to the scientific community and to design the observations, in a project named ULLYSES.

    In May 2019 MGG joined ULLYSES’s science advisory committee, a group of experts that is guiding the decisions of the core implementation team.

    ULLYSES will ensure high-quality UV spectroscopy of more than 200 hot massive stars in the Magellanic Cloud and other Local Group metal-poor galaxies. Not only will it devote an impressive number of orbits to new observations, but also archival data will be reprocessed to a unified standard. Learn more about ULLYSES.

  • A new PhD on massive stars: Sara Rodríguez Berlanas

    Sara Rodríguez Berlanas thesis defense at the University of La Laguna, July 2019.

    Sara Rodríguez Berlanas had the successful defense for her PhD on July 26th, 2019. Her thorough and impressive work on the Cygnus complex, supported by extensive observing runs at the telescopes of La Palma, will lay the ground for the future WEAVE survey of the region. Congratulations, Sara!

  • Happy 10th birthday, GTC!

    Ten years ago, on July 24th 2009, a group of scientists, politicians and the king and queen of Spain celebrated  the official inauguration of the Gran Telescopio Canarias. I was very lucky to share this moment, though back at the time I didn’t suspect how important GTC would be to my research. GTC and its instrumentation have consolidated their performance during these 10 years, and have become a fundamental tool to look for massive stars in other galaxies (with OSIRIS and MEGARA) and the Milky Way (EMIR).

    Here’s to many more years of scientific success!

    Check out the IAC’s press release, including an amazing video describing the telescope, its history, and GTC’s day to day operations.

    MGG at GTC’s inauguration. Trust me, that’s the fanciest I’ll ever look in a telescope!
  • CAB-Masivas at Telescopio Nazionale Galileo

    Paco Najarro and Miriam García are having a 4 night long observing run at the TNG. They will obtain high resolution spectra of blue massive stars with GIANO. Fingers crossed for good weather!

    H-band spectrum of a Milky Way LBV-candidate, featuring a PCygni profile at HeI 1.70 microns [telluric-correction pending].
    The impressive 3.58m TNG primary mirror.
    Sunset from the TNG dome.
  • Marta Lorenzo successfully defends her Master thesis.

    On June 27th, 2019 Marta presented her Master dissertation at UCM. The thesis was entitled “Más allá de la Pequeña Nube de Magallanes. Estrellas masivas pobres en metales y su relación con la galaxia anfitriona”, and used our observations of Sextans A to study the Initial Mass Function at different sites of the galaxy. She was awarded Matrícula de Honor; congratulations, Marta!