The Second NEON Archive Observing School at ESO hosted 20 students from 13 different European countries. The lecture program featured talks ranging from an introduction to spectroscopy and photometry to detailed presentations on future observatories such as ALMA. The main focus, however, is on the research projects the students carry out in groups of four under the supervision of an experienced astronomer.

Two students of our group attended the course Juan Carlos Muñoz and Guillermo Barro.

A galaxy at redshift 10?

Tutor: Mischa Schirmer
Students: Brigitta Eder,Vera Könyves, Juan Carlos Muñoz Mateos, Magdalena Polinska

In 2004, astronomers announced the detection of a galaxy with a redshift of about 10 behind a lensing cluster of galaxies. The existence of this object has subsequently been a hotly debated topic, and triggered a series of follow-up observations for its verification. We will reduce the original ISAAC JHK images, using latest reduction techniques, and see if we can reproduce the detection. Time permitting, these data will be combined with observations from SOFI to push the detection limit. Our analysis will be complemented with ultra-deep archival V-and z-band observations obtained with FORS1 and FORS2, to check for emission below the Lyman limit.

Link to student presentation (PDF)

Ultracompact dwarf galaxies in Abell 1689

Tutor: Steffen Mieske
Students: Guillermo Barro Calvo, Emanuela Chiosi, Melanie Hawthorn, Micaela Stumpf 

This project deals with the mysterious "ultracompact dwarf galaxies" (UCDs). UCDs have up to now been confirmed in the nearby Virgo and Fornax clusters.We will use archival data from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in order to look for UCDs in the galaxy cluster Abell 1689, an extreme environment which is also known as the strongest lens in the sky. The aim is to check whether Abell 1689 harbors overluminous UCDs similar to the very compact Andromeda satellite galaxy M32, a galaxy which is sometimes considered as a unique "freak of nature". The project consists of two parts. First, a photometric search for UCD candidates in Abell 1689, using archival images from HST. Second, the spectroscopic confirmation of some of these candidates, using archival data from ESO's VLT.

Link to student presentation (PDF)