ASGARD Research group

AStronomy Group for Academic Research and Dissemination

Valencian International University (VIU), Spain

The AStronomy Group for Academic Research and Dissemination (ASGARD) is composed by researchers at VIU. We work on several research lines, in the fields of galaxies, star clusters, stars, exoplanets and astronomical instrumentation, covering wavelengths from radio to X-rays (both photometry and spectroscopy). ASGARD members pursue individual projects while also collaborating on joint research endeavors, pooling resources and efforts to advance our collective scientific goals.

Latest news:

• July 2026: our researcher Marta Gonzalez was an invited Keynote Speaker at the 25th European Young Statisticians Meeting at the Vilnius University (Lithuania). She gave a lecture titled "Spatial Statistics and Topology in Star Formation" and also participated in a panel discussion about Challenges of AI for Science and Society (available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBgA_8tueAQ).

• July 2026: some members of our Asgard Group (Elisa Nespoli, Nestor Sanchez, Fabiola Hernandez, Elvis Laccuz, Juan Francisco Vallalta) participated with several talks and posters in the XVII Scientific Meeting of the Spanish Astronomical Society, held in Tarragona (Spain). 

• June 2026: Elisa Nespoli, Nestor Sanchez, and Marta González organized the second edition of the online event "La Noche de la Formación Estelar", consisting of an invited lecture by Dr. Emilio Alfaro (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía) and a public remote observation session using telescopes from the Observatorio Sierra Nevada (Granada, Spain). The event can be viewed on the following YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/live/vJI014lHmBQ

• April 2026: Marta Gonzalez, Elisa Nespoli, Elvis Lacruz and Nestor Sanchez participated with several talks in the Second Research Workshop of Centro Esencia, held in Valencia (Spain).

• March 2026: Pere Blay and Elisa Nespoli participated in a Conference about the Transient High-Energy Sky and Early Universe Surveyor (THESEUS) space mission of the European Space Agency (ESA), held in Torremolinos (Spain).

Our latest works:

ALMA-IMF. XXII. Role of core subfragmentation in the IMF origin: Hierarchical mass cascade in W43-MM1. F. Motte, N. Le Nestour, R. Veyry, N. Brouillet, T. Nony, B. Thomasson, F. Louvet, I. Joncour, E. Moraux, A. Men’shchikov, T. Yoo, A. Ginsburg, A. Gusdorf, A. M. Stutz, R. Galván-Madrid, T. Csengeri, R. H. Álvarez-Gutiérrez, M. Armante, Y. Bernard, M. Bonfand, S. Chevalier, N. Cunningham, P. Dell'Ova, M. González, A. Koley, F. A. Olguin, D. Panda, Y. Pouteau, J. Salinas, P. Sanhueza, N. A. Sandoval-Garrido, M. Valeille-Manet. Astronomy and Astrophysics  (accepted: 28 June 2026). Link to the publication.

The OTELO Survey: The main sequence of low-mass galaxies. Bernabé Cedrés, Jordi Cepa, Carmen P. Padilla–Torres, Ángel Bongiovanni, Miguel Cerviño, José A. de Diego, Jakub Nadolny, Simon B. De Daniloff, Mauro González–Otero, Monica I. Rodríguez, Jesús Gallego, Mirjana Pović, Maritza A. Lara–López, J. Ignacio González–Serrano, Miguel Sánchez–Portal, Ana María Pérez–García, Ricardo Pérez–Martínez, and Emilio J. Alfaro. Astronomy and Astrophysics  (2026, volume 711, A76). Link to the publication.

Virial-based extraction of structures in numerical simulations: The vibes tool. S. Chevalier, F. Louvet, Y. Bernard, F. Motte, D. J. Price, N. Brucy, M. Valeille-Manet, M. González-Garcia, E. Moraux, I. Joncour, B. Thomasson, P. Didelon. Astronomy and Astrophysics (2026, volume 711, A231). Link to the publication.

S2D2: Small-scale Significant substructure DBSCAN Detection II. Tracing episodes and gradients of star formation activity. Marta González, Isabelle Joncour, Estelle Moraux, Frédérique Motte, Elisa Nespoli, Fabien Louvet, Maxime Valeille-Manet, Vicent Martínez-Badenes. Astronomy and Astrophysics (2026, volume 709, A264). Link to the publication.

Leaders and associated space debris around the Classical Laplace Plane. Elvis Lacruz, Daniel Casanova. Advances in Space Research (2026, volume 78, pp. 1274-1296). Link to the publication.