The CAB Massive Stars Group at Villafranca is currently composed of Jesús Maíz Apellániz (Scientific Researcher), Michelangelo Pantaleoni González (PhD student),  and Asier Lambarri Martínez (MSc student). Our Plan Nacional (PID2022-136640NB-C22) includes two other research members: Cecilia Fariña (Isaac Newton Group Support Scientist at La Palma) and Tomer Shenar (CAM Atracción de Talento Fellow at CAB-Torrejón), and is part of a coordinated project with the other subproject based at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía with two members in its research team, Rainer Schödel and Emilio J. Alfaro. In addition, the Villafranca team included two postdoctoral researchers until 2023: Gonzalo Holgado Alijo and José Alejo Molina Lera. Former PhD students include Alfredo Sota and Emilio Trigueros Páez.

We study massive stars using different techniques: imaging, spectroscopy, and astrometry; from the ground and from space; in the ultraviolet, optical, and infrared; and we are interested in the stars themselves, the clusters and associations they belong to, whether they are still close to the other stars they were born with or have been ejected as runaway stars, and in the interstellar medium located around them and on the path their light follows to reach us. We concentrate on the use of large-scale surveys to achieve our goals and for that purpose we contribute to their design, execution, calibration, and pipeline writing.

Our papers: Look for Jesús Maíz Apellániz in the ADS or in astro-ph.

The project we have spent more time on since 2002:  

The Galactic O-Star Catalog

Another highly productive project:                                    

The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey

High-resolution spectra of OB stars observed many times:      

LiLiMaRlin

How we are finding OB stars in the Milky Way and the project we currently spend more time on:                                    

GALANTE

How we are measuring their distances and motions:         

Gaia

How we are going to study their properties:                                   

WEAVE

Press releases:

1. •The Cepheus spur (in Spanish)
   

2. •The first broad interstellar band in the visible spectrum (in Spanish)
   

3. •The high-order multiplicity of massive stars
   

4. •The initial mass function of R136 (in Spanish)
   

5. •Supermassive stars in R136 (in Spanish)
   

6. •Trumpler 14
   

7. •Sigma Orionis
   

8. •The 30 Doradus optical+IR extinction laws
   

9. •The Galactic O-Star Spectroscopic Survey
   

10. •HD 150 136 (in Spanish)
    

11. •The core of 30 Doradus as a double cluster
    

12. •NGC 1624-2 (in Spanish)
    

13. •N11
    

14. •The Jewel Box
    

15. •WR 25 and Tr 16-244
    

16. •NGC 3603
    

17. •Pismis 24
    

18. •Scorpius-Centaurus
    

19. •30 Doradus
    

20. •NGC 4214