Colloquium

The lowest-mass stellar systems offer a unique and powerful path for examining fundamental questions in galaxy formation and dark matter physics. I will discuss how globular clusters and dwarf galaxies are providing tests of the LCDM model in the local Universe and at high redshifts.

The success of ground-based transit and RV surveys, and the Kepler/K2 mission, has shifted the exoplanet field from pure discovery to a combination of discovery, demographic analysis, and detailed characterization, especially for exoplanet atmospheres.

Starbursts are a rare phenomenon in the present day universe, but they represent perhaps the most common mode under which stars form and galaxies grow during the z~1-2 peak of cosmic star formation activity.

Multi-messenger astronomy coupling gravitational waves and light was born with the detection of the first neutron star merger, GW170817.

I will review the method of atmospheric retrieval, which is a remote sensing technique borrowed from the Earth atmospheric and planetary sciences and generalised for the study of exoplanetary atmospheres.

Ionizing photons from massive stars produce emission lines that characterize the gaseous condition and evolution of galaxies.

In the last few years, our first glimpse of the spectral properties of z∼5−7 galaxies has emerged.