Hot Jupiters represent an interesting class of exoplanets that does not exist in the Solar System. These are giant gaseous planets that orbit at such close distances from their stars that their orbital periods are shorter than 10 days. Due to their proximity to their stars, these planets have very hot atmospheres, with temperatures exceeding 1500 K. For this reason,
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The Sun regularly exhibits magnetic phenomena, including sunspots and solar flares, which are not only visually appealing but also crucial for in-depth study and understanding. This is because these phenomena arise from large-scale interactions between the solar magnetic field and its plasma. Moreover, they provide valuable insights into the structure of the Sun and its atmosphere. Almost all other
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Stellar clusters are important targets for studying stellar evolution and, in the case of the youngest star clusters, the products of the star and planet formation processes. Our galaxy hosts a rich population of young stellar clusters, typically with masses of a few hundred solar masses. In the solar neighborhood, for instance, there are only a few young clusters with
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Today in the Milky Way, star formation typically occurs in low-mass environments. Young star clusters (e.g., younger than 10 million years), in fact, typically have a mass of a few hundred solar masses. Nevertheless, our Galaxy hosts a few very massive star-forming regions that can produce tens to hundreds of thousands of stars, including some of the most massive stars
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The formation of stars and planets results from the complex interplay of various factors and agents: the collapse of the cloud due to its own gravitational force, its internal turbulence and magnetic effects, the evolution of star clusters formed within, and the interactions among young stars within these clusters, as well as the influence of their radiation on the surrounding
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Nature sets a lower limit on stellar masses: objects less massive than 0.07-0.08 solar masses are incapable of initiating the thermonuclear reactions that power more massive stars. Below this threshold lies the realm of brown dwarfs, objects whose mass is too small to qualify as stars, yet too large to be categorized as planets. The mechanism responsible for the
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Several questions about the star formation process are still debated. For instance, we know that stars form from the gravitational contraction of clouds of gas and dust, called “molecular clouds,” since they are mainly made of molecular hydrogen. Mainly thanks to observations from the Herschel satellite, we also know that most star formation occurs in long filaments embedded in these
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The Vera C. Rubin is currently under construction in Cerro Pachón, northern Chile. Equipped with an 8.4-meter primary mirror, the telescope is designed to monitor the entire visible sky for ten years with six filters that cover the entire optical band, along with part of the UV band (the u filter) and the IR band (the y filter). This survey, known
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Without any doubts, the supernova remnants SN1987A is the one that taught us more about this class of objects and supernova exposions. Produced by a supernova exploded in the Large Magellanic Cloud on February 23rd 1987, this is the only case in which we have observations of the progenitor, of the supernova explosion, and in which we follow the development
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