Equatorial Enhancement in the Dustiest OH/IR Stars in the Galactic Bulge (2025)
Journal Article
Goldman, S. R., van Loon, J. T., Jones, O. C., Blommaert, J. A. D. L., & Groenewegen, M. A. T. (2025). Equatorial Enhancement in the Dustiest OH/IR Stars in the Galactic Bulge. Astrophysical Journal, 980(2), 191. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ada6ad

We have detected the 10 μm silicate feature and the 11.3 μm crystalline forsterite feature in absorption in 21 oxygen-rich asymptotic giant branch stars in the Galactic bulge. The depths of the 10 μm feature indicate highly obscured circumstellar env... Read More about Equatorial Enhancement in the Dustiest OH/IR Stars in the Galactic Bulge.

Star Formation History of the Local Group Dwarf Irregular Galaxy, NGC 6822 (2024)
Journal Article
Khatamsaz, F., Abdollahi, M., Abdollahi, H., Javadi, A., & van Loon, J. T. (in press). Star Formation History of the Local Group Dwarf Irregular Galaxy, NGC 6822. Communications of the Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory, 71(2), 394-397. https://doi.org/10.52526/25792776-24.71.2-394

NGC 6822 is an isolated dwarf irregular galaxy in the local group at a distance of ∼ 490 kpc. In this paper, we present the star formation history (SFH) within a field with a radius of ∼ 3 kpc, beyond the optical body of the galaxy ( ∼ 1.2 kpc). We u... Read More about Star Formation History of the Local Group Dwarf Irregular Galaxy, NGC 6822.

A Deep Dive into Stellar Populations in M33’s Central Region: Near-Infrared Observations and Analysis (2024)
Journal Article
Alizadeh, M., Javadi, A., van Loon, J. T., Abedini, Y., Abdollahi, H., & Seifipour, S. (in press). A Deep Dive into Stellar Populations in M33’s Central Region: Near-Infrared Observations and Analysis. Communications of the Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory, 71(2), 389-393. https://doi.org/10.52526/25792776-24.71.2-389

Data collection was conducted using three cameras on the UK Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) from 2003 to 2007. Throughout three nights in August 2005, the UKIRT Fast-Track Imager (UFTI) made K-band observations. The J and H bands Wide Field Camera (WFCAM)... Read More about A Deep Dive into Stellar Populations in M33’s Central Region: Near-Infrared Observations and Analysis.

Detection of the Long Period Variable Stars of And II Dwarf Satellite galaxy (2024)
Journal Article
Abdollahi, H., Javadi, A., van Loon, J. T., McDonald, I., Abdollahi, M., Saremi, E., …Mahani, H. (in press). Detection of the Long Period Variable Stars of And II Dwarf Satellite galaxy. Communications of the Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory, 71(2), 383-388. https://doi.org/10.52526/25792776-24.71.2-383

We conducted an extensive study of the spheroidal dwarf satellite galaxies around the Andromeda galaxy to produce an extensive catalog of LPV stars. The optical monitoring project consists of 55 dwarf galaxies and four globular clusters that are memb... Read More about Detection of the Long Period Variable Stars of And II Dwarf Satellite galaxy.

Machine Learning Classification of Young Stellar Objects and Evolved Stars in the Magellanic Clouds Using the Probabilistic Random Forest Classifier (2024)
Journal Article
Ghaziasgar, S., Abdollahi, M., Javadi, A., van Loon, J. T., McDonald, I., Oliveira, J., & Khosroshahi, H. G. (in press). Machine Learning Classification of Young Stellar Objects and Evolved Stars in the Magellanic Clouds Using the Probabilistic Random Forest Classifier. Communications of the Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory, 71(2), 377-382. https://doi.org/10.52526/25792776-24.71.2-377

The Magellanic Clouds (MCs) are excellent locations to study stellar dust emission and its contribution to galaxy evolution. Through spectral and photometric classification, MCs can serve as a unique environment for studying stellar evolution and gal... Read More about Machine Learning Classification of Young Stellar Objects and Evolved Stars in the Magellanic Clouds Using the Probabilistic Random Forest Classifier.

Deciphering Galactic Halos: A Detailed Review of Star Formation in NGC 5128 (Cen A) (2024)
Journal Article
Abdollahi, M., Aghdam, S. T., Javadi, A., Hashemi, S. A., van Loon, J. T., Khosroshahi, H., …Saberi, M. (in press). Deciphering Galactic Halos: A Detailed Review of Star Formation in NGC 5128 (Cen A). Communications of the Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory, 71(2), 345-350. https://doi.org/10.52526/25792776-24.71.2-345

NGC 5128 (Centaurus A), the closest giant elliptical galaxy outside the Local Group to the Milky Way, is one of the brightest extragalactic radio sources. It is distinguished by a prominent dust lane and powerful jets, driven by a supermassive black... Read More about Deciphering Galactic Halos: A Detailed Review of Star Formation in NGC 5128 (Cen A).

A new method for spatially resolving the turbulence driving mixture in the ISM with application to the Small Magellanic Cloud (2023)
Journal Article
Gerrard, I. A., Federrath, C., Pingel, N. M., McClure-Griffiths, N. M., Marchal, A., Joncas, G., …Lynn, C. (2023). A new method for spatially resolving the turbulence driving mixture in the ISM with application to the Small Magellanic Cloud. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 526(1), https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad2718

Turbulence plays a crucial role in shaping the structure of the interstellar medium. The ratio of the three-dimensional density contrast ($\sigma _{\rho /\rho _0}$) to the turbulent sonic Mach number ($\mathcal {M}$) of an isothermal, compressible ga... Read More about A new method for spatially resolving the turbulence driving mixture in the ISM with application to the Small Magellanic Cloud.

Kinematics of stellar substructures in the small magellanic cloud (2023)
Journal Article
El Youssoufi, D., Cioni, M. L., Kacharov, N., Bell, C. P. M., Matjevic, G., Bekki, K., …van Loon, J. T. (2023). Kinematics of stellar substructures in the small magellanic cloud. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 523(1), 347-364. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad1339

We present a kinematic analysis of the Small Magellanic Cloud using 3700 spectra extracted from the European Southern Observatory archive. We used data from Gaia and near-infrared photometry to select stellar populations and discard Galactic foregrou... Read More about Kinematics of stellar substructures in the small magellanic cloud.

H I filaments as potential compass needles? Comparing the magnetic field structure of the Small Magellanic Cloud to the orientation of GASKAP-H I filaments (2023)
Journal Article
Van Loon, J. T., Ma, Y. K., McClure-Griffiths, N. M., Clark, S. E., Gibson, S. J., Soler, J. D., …Pingel, N. M. (2023). H I filaments as potential compass needles? Comparing the magnetic field structure of the Small Magellanic Cloud to the orientation of GASKAP-H I filaments. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 521(1), 60 - 83. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad462

High-spatial-resolution H i observations have led to the realization that the nearby (within few hundreds of parsecs) Galactic atomic filamentary structures are aligned with the ambient magnetic field. Enabled by the high-quality data from the Austra... Read More about H I filaments as potential compass needles? Comparing the magnetic field structure of the Small Magellanic Cloud to the orientation of GASKAP-H I filaments.

The Isaac Newton Telescope Monitoring Survey of Local Group Dwarf Galaxies. V. The Star Formation History of Sagittarius Dwarf Irregular Galaxy Derived from Long-period Variable Stars (2023)
Journal Article
Van Loon, J. (2023). The Isaac Newton Telescope Monitoring Survey of Local Group Dwarf Galaxies. V. The Star Formation History of Sagittarius Dwarf Irregular Galaxy Derived from Long-period Variable Stars. Astrophysical Journal, https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aca471

We conducted an optical monitoring survey of the Sagittarius dwarf irregular galaxy (SagDIG) during the period of 2016 June–2017 October, using the 2.5 m Isaac Newton Telescopeat La Palama. Our goal was to identify long-period variable stars (LPVs),... Read More about The Isaac Newton Telescope Monitoring Survey of Local Group Dwarf Galaxies. V. The Star Formation History of Sagittarius Dwarf Irregular Galaxy Derived from Long-period Variable Stars.

The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey Observational evidence for two distinct populations of massive runaway stars in 30 Doradus (2022)
Journal Article
Observational evidence for two distinct populations of massive runaway stars in 30 Doradus. Astronomy & Astrophysics, https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202244677

Context. The origin of massive runaway stars is an important unsolved problem in astrophysics. Two main scenarios have been proposed, namely: dynamical ejection or release from a binary at the first core collapse. However, their relative contribution... Read More about The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey Observational evidence for two distinct populations of massive runaway stars in 30 Doradus.

Massive young stellar objects in the Local Group spiral galaxy M 33 identified using machine learning (2022)
Journal Article
Kinson, D., Oliveira, J., & Van Loon, J. (2022). Massive young stellar objects in the Local Group spiral galaxy M 33 identified using machine learning. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 140 - 160. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac2692

We present a supervised machine learning classification of stellar populations in the Local Group spiral galaxy M?33. The Probabilistic Random Forest (PRF) methodology, previously applied to populations in NGC?6822, utilizes both near and far-IR clas... Read More about Massive young stellar objects in the Local Group spiral galaxy M 33 identified using machine learning.

GASKAP-HI Pilot Survey Science III: An unbiased view of cold gas in the Small Magellanic Cloud (2022)
Journal Article
Van Loon. (2022). GASKAP-HI Pilot Survey Science III: An unbiased view of cold gas in the Small Magellanic Cloud. Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, https://doi.org/10.1017/pasa.2022.18

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>We present the first unbiased survey of neutral hydrogen absorption in the Small Magellanic Cloud. The survey utilises pilot neutral hydrogen observations with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder... Read More about GASKAP-HI Pilot Survey Science III: An unbiased view of cold gas in the Small Magellanic Cloud.

The VMC survey - XLIX. Discovery of a population of quasars dominated by nuclear dust emission behind the Magellanic Clouds (2022)
Journal Article
Pennock, C. M., Th van Loon, J., Anih, J. O., Maitra, C., Haberl, F., Sansom, A. E., …Vardoulaki, E. (2022). The VMC survey - XLIX. Discovery of a population of quasars dominated by nuclear dust emission behind the Magellanic Clouds. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 515(4), 6046-6065. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac2096

Following the discovery of SAGE0536AGN (z ∼ 0.14), with the strongest 10-μm silicate emission ever observed for an active galactic nucleus (AGN), we discovered SAGE0534AGN (z ∼ 1.01), a similar AGN but with less extreme silicate emission. Both were o... Read More about The VMC survey - XLIX. Discovery of a population of quasars dominated by nuclear dust emission behind the Magellanic Clouds.

The Detection of Deuterated Water in the Large Magellanic Cloud with ALMA (2022)
Journal Article
Sewiło, M., Karska, A., Kristensen, L. E., Charnley, S. B., Rosie Chen, C., Oliveira, J. M., …Garcia-Berrios, E. (2022). The Detection of Deuterated Water in the Large Magellanic Cloud with ALMA. Astrophysical Journal, https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac6de1

We report the first detection of deuterated water (HDO) toward an extragalactic hot core. The HDO 211–212 line has been detected toward hot cores N 105–2 A and 2 B in the N 105 star-forming region in the low-metallicity Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) d... Read More about The Detection of Deuterated Water in the Large Magellanic Cloud with ALMA.

The intrinsic reddening of the Magellanic Clouds as traced by background galaxies – III. The Large Magellanic Cloud (2022)
Journal Article
Van Loon, Bell, C. P. M., Cioni, M. L., Wright, A. H., Nidever, D. L., Chiang, I., …Zaritsky, D. (2022). The intrinsic reddening of the Magellanic Clouds as traced by background galaxies – III. The Large Magellanic Cloud. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 516(1), 824-840. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac1545

We present a map of the total intrinsic reddening across ≃ 90 deg2 of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) derived using optical (ugriz) and near-infrared (IR; YJKs) spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of background galaxies. The reddening map is create... Read More about The intrinsic reddening of the Magellanic Clouds as traced by background galaxies – III. The Large Magellanic Cloud.

ALMA Observations of Molecular Complexity in the Large Magellanic Cloud: The N 105 Star-forming Region (2022)
Journal Article
Sewiło, M., Cordiner, M., Charnley, S. B., Oliveira, J. M., Garcia-Berrios, E., Schilke, P., …Zahorecz, S. (2022). ALMA Observations of Molecular Complexity in the Large Magellanic Cloud: The N 105 Star-forming Region. Astrophysical Journal, 931(2), Article 102. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac4e8f

The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is the nearest laboratory for detailed studies on the formation and survival of complex organic molecules (COMs), including biologically important ones, in low-metallicity environments-typical of earlier cosmological... Read More about ALMA Observations of Molecular Complexity in the Large Magellanic Cloud: The N 105 Star-forming Region.

The VMC survey. XLV. Proper motion of the outer LMC and the impact of the SMC (2022)
Journal Article
Oliveira, J., & Van Loon, J. (2022). The VMC survey. XLV. Proper motion of the outer LMC and the impact of the SMC. Astronomy & Astrophysics, https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202142148

Context. The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is the most luminous satellite galaxy of the Milky Way and owing to its companion, the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), represents an excellent laboratory to study the interaction of dwarf galaxies.

Aims. The... Read More about The VMC survey. XLV. Proper motion of the outer LMC and the impact of the SMC.

The Nearby Evolved Stars Survey II: Constructing a volume-limited sample and first results from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (2022)
Journal Article
Van Loon. (2022). The Nearby Evolved Stars Survey II: Constructing a volume-limited sample and first results from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 1091 - 1110. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab2860

The Nearby Evolved Stars Survey (NESS) is a volume-complete sample of ~850 Galactic evolved stars within 3?kpc at (sub-)mm wavelengths, observed in the CO J = (2–1) and (3–2) rotational lines, and the sub-mm continuum, using the James Clark Maxwell T... Read More about The Nearby Evolved Stars Survey II: Constructing a volume-limited sample and first results from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope.

Mysterious odd radio circle near the large magellanic cloud - an intergalactic supernova remnant? (2022)
Journal Article
Van Loon. (2022). Mysterious odd radio circle near the large magellanic cloud - an intergalactic supernova remnant?. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 265 - 284. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stac210

We report the discovery of J0624–6948, a low-surface brightness radio ring, lying between the Galactic Plane and the large magellanic cloud (LMC). It was first detected at 888 MHz with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), and wit... Read More about Mysterious odd radio circle near the large magellanic cloud - an intergalactic supernova remnant?.