VST Science Workshop 2026

Session

Session 4: Normal Programs & ToO

10 Apr 2026, 09:30

Sala Cimmino (Monte Mario)

2. YEARS: Young Exoplanet Analysis in Rich Stellar cluster

Ignazio Francesco Pillitteri (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))

10/04/2026, 09:30

Contributed talk

Exoplanet formation and their early evolution is still poorly understood
because of the paucity of known young planets at ages of less than 1 Gyr. Here I present the program YEARS (Young Exoplanet Analysis in Rich Stellar cluster, P.I. Ignazio Pillitteri) that aims at discovering new young exoplanets transiting the stars of the rich southern open cluster NGC 2516. The cluster has an age of...

14. Known by the Loss: Probing the Mass-Loss History of Supernova Progenitors through Circumstellar Interaction

Fabio Ragosta (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))

10/04/2026, 09:50

Contributed talk

The final stages of massive star evolution are strongly influenced by episodes of intense mass loss, which shape the circumstellar environment into which the supernova (SN) explosion expands. When the SN ejecta interact with this circumstellar material (CSM), the resulting radiation provides a unique diagnostic of the progenitor’s mass-loss history in the years to decades prior to...

16. NEOVST: A survey of newly-discovered Near-Earth Objects through the VLT Survey Telescope

Pedro Henrique Hasselmann (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))

10/04/2026, 10:10

Contributed talk

Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) provide a window into the smallest population of asteroids and comets that originated from different regions of the Solar System. As NEO discoveries increase – currently at about 3,000 objects per year – the majority are not followed up with physical characterization, which would provide insights into their formation and evolutionary processes. Such data can also help...

31. The unexpected stellar populations of the Milky Way's satellite Fornax dSph

Massimo Dall'Ora (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))

10/04/2026, 10:30

Contributed talk

Building upon the seminal work of Searle & Zinn (1978) and within the framework of the Λ-CDM paradigm, the Milky Way (MW) halo is understood to have formed through the progressive and ongoing accretion of smaller sub-galactic fragments. This hierarchical assembly can be empirically tested via Near-Field Cosmology, specifically by comparing theoretical structural predictions with star-by-star...

21. BEARD at the VST, characterising the low surface brightness features in Milky Way analogues

Edoardo Borsato (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))

10/04/2026, 11:20

Contributed talk

The Λ Cold Dark Matter (ΛCDM) cosmological model predicts that galaxies grow through frequent hierarchical mergers. While this framework competently explains many observed large structures, it undergoes challenges when accounting for bulgeless galaxies. These systems are dominated by their disk component and show no, or only negligible, bulges. In the ΛCDM picture, hierarchical mergers are...

22. INTERBARS, characterising bar formation driven by galaxy interaction

Edoardo Borsato (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))

10/04/2026, 11:40

Contributed talk

Stellar bars play an important role in regulating the evolution and morphology of disk galaxies and are very common, appearing in about 70% of local massive disk galaxies. Through their rotation, they redistribute stars and gas toward the central regions, feeding central black holes and contributing to the bulge growth. Over time, the angular momentum transferred from the bar to its host...

23. A MAGNHIFFIC view of nearby AGN, their circum-galactic medium and low-surface brightness satellites

Filippo Maccagni (Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF))

10/04/2026, 12:00

Contributed talk

The delicate balance between material accreting from the intergalactic medium and gas expelled from galaxies regulates their evolution. The accretion of gas onto their central supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and the subsequent ejection of highly energetic winds and jets (AGN feeding and feedback processes) play a crucial role in maintaining or disrupting this balance. The HI 21-cm line is an...

32. Nuclear activity and star formation in the HYPER-MAX fields J231 and J1342

Demetra De Cicco (Università degli Studi di Napoli "Federico II")

10/04/2026, 12:20

Contributed talk

We will present the first results on the co-evolution of active galactic nuclei (AGN) and their host galaxies using the first data from the HYPER-MAX survey, an intermediate-redshift program conducted with the VST telescope on fields from the HYPERION survey. Our analysis focuses on two fields. Stellar masses and star-formation rates (SFRs) are derived from multi-wavelength photometry through...