Giacomo Cordoni

Research Fellow in Astrophysics

University of Padova

Biography

Hi there, I recently obtained a Ph.D. in Astrophysics at the University of Padova and I am an active member of the GALFOR research group as a Research Fellow. I earned both my Physics Bachelor degree and my Astronomy Master degree at the university of Padova, where I’m currently doing my Ph.D.

My research focuses on the study of Star clusters in the Milky Way and in the Magellanic Clouds, and I investigate different features of these puzzling and fascinating objects. These are the main topics that I studied so far:

Analysis of the internal dynamics of Multiple Stellar Populations in old Galactic Globular clusters coupling ground- and space-based photometry with Gaia DR2 proper motions.
Study of extended Main-Sequence Turn-Offs and split Main-Sequences in Young Galactic Open clusters with Gaia DR2 photometry
Multiple Stellar Populations in Young Magellanic Clouds clusters. In this context I am P.I. of an approved HST proposal to unveil the nature of such phenomena.

Furthermore, I spent three months at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ANU, Canberra, Australia) during which time I studied the dynamics of Very Metal-Poor stars in the Milky Way. Such rare stars provide a unique window into the formation of the Milky Way.

Interests

Physics and Astronomy
Photometry & Astrometry
Star Clusters
Internal dynamics of star clusters
Metal-poor stars
Galactic archeology
Data Science
Statistical tools

Education

PhD in Astronomy & Astrophysics, 2021

University of Padova
MSc in Astronmy & Astrophysics, 2018

University of Padova
BSc in Physics, 2016

University of Padova

Scientific Experience

Assistant Professor

University of Padova; University of Bergamo

Oct 2021 – Apr 2023 Padova, Italy

Assistant professor for Astronomy 1 Lab. and for the Physics 1 course of the engineering program

Visiting Ph.D. student

Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, ANU

Oct 2019 – Dec 2019 Canberra, ACT, Australia

Collaboration with Prof. Gary S. Da Costa and Dr. David Yong

Visiting Ph.D. student

Indiana University Bloomington

Jun 2019 – Jun 2019 Bloomington, Indiana, US

Collaboration with Prof. Enrico Vesperini

Tutoring activity in Calculus 1

University of Padova, Padova, Italy

Oct 2018 – Jun 2019 Padova, Italy

Tutoring activity in Calculus 1 for Physics and Astrononmy Bachelor degree at the university of Padova

Summer fellowship

University of Padova, Padova, Italy

Jul 2018 – Sep 2018 Padova, Italy

Summer fellowship on Multiple Stellar Populations in Magellanic Cloud Clusters supervised by Prof. Antonino P. Milone

Visiting Ph.D. student

Max Planck Institue fur Astronomie, Heidelberg, Germany

Feb 2019 – Feb 2019 Heidelberg, Germany

Collaboration with Dr. Alessandra Mastrobuono-Battisti

Accomplishments

Honorable mention: Premio Tacchini for the best Italian Ph.D. thesis in Astrophysics

Società Astronomica Italiana Jul 2028

See certificate

Stefano Magini Award for the best Italian Master thesis in Astrophysics

INAF Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri Jul 2020

The Stefano Magini award, granted by the Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory, INAF, is addressed to all students of Italian Universities that discussed their Astrophysics-related Master Thesis between April, 1st 2018 and November, 30th 2019.

See certificate

Projects

Galactic archeology through Very Metal-Poor stars

Very Metal-Poor stara are very rare objects and they are key ingredients for the understanding of the formation of the Milky Way, offering a unique perspective into the earliest phases of our infant Galaxy.

Dynamics of Multiple Stellar Populations in Old Globular clusters

The presence and origin of Multiple stellar populations in Globular Clusters is one of the greatest mysteries of modern astrophysics.

Galactic Open clusters

Our reserach proved that nearby young clusters exhibits an extended main-sequence turnoff and a broadened main sequence. This is the first evidence of multiple stellar populations in a Galactic open cluster.

Young Magellanic Clouds clusters

The discovery of multiple populations in young and intermediate-age clusters has been one of the major findings in the field of stellar populations of the last decade.

GALFOR

GALFOR is an ERC funded project of Galactic archaeology (ERC-2016-STG, 716082) to address such hot topics of modern astrophysics

First-Author Publications

Cordoni G., Milone A. P., Marino A. F., Vesperini E., Dondoglio E., Legnardi M. V., Mohandasan A., Carlos M., Lagioia E. P., Jang S., Ziliotto T.

February 2023 A&A

Photometric binaries, mass functions, and structural parameters of 78 Galactic open clusters

PDF Code Project

Milone A. P., Cordoni G., Marino A. F., D’Antona F., Bellini A., Di Criscienzo M., Dondoglio E., Lagioia E. P., Langer N., Legnardi M. V., Libralato M., Baumgardt H., Bettinelli M., Cavecchi Y., de Grijs R., Deng L., Hastings B., Li C., Mohandasan A., Renzini A., Vesperini E., Wang C., Ziliotto T., Carlos M., Costa G., Dell’Agli F., Di Stefano S., Jang S., Martorano M., Simioni M., Tailo M., Ventura P.

February 2023 A&A

Hubble Space Telescope survey of Magellanic Cloud star clusters. Photometry and astrometry of 113 clusters and early results

Homogeneous HST photometry and astrometry of 113 clusters revels unexpcted results in the context of young star clusters in the Magellanic Clouds

PDF Code Project

Cordoni G., Milone A. P., Marino A. F., Cignoni M., Lagioia E. P., Tailo M., Carlos M. G., Dondoglio E., Jang S., Mohandasan A., Legnardi M. V.

July 2022 NatCo

NGC1818 unveils the origin of the extended main-sequence turn-off in young Magellanic Clouds clusters

The turn-on in the 40 Myr-old cluster NGC1818 exclude the presence of possible age differences among cluster stars, unveiling the origin of the extended main-sequence turn-off in young Magellanic Clouds clusters

PDF Code Project Project

Cordoni G., Da Costa G. S., Yong D., Mackey A. D., Marino A. F., Monty S., Nordlander T., Norris J. E., Asplund M., Bessell M. S., Casey A. R., Frebel A., Lind K., Murphy S. J., Schmidt B. P.;, Gao X. D., Xylakis-Dornbusch T., Amarsi A. M., Milone A. P.

November 2020 MNRAS

Exploring the Galaxy's halo and very metal weak thick disk with SkyMapper and Gaia DR2

Galactic archeology with the dynamics of Extremely Metal-Poor stras from the SkyMapper survey for Extremely Metal-Poor.

PDF Code Project Poster Video

Cordoni G., Milone A. P., Marino A. F., Da Costa G. S., Dondoglio E., Jerjen H., Lagioia E. P., Mastrobuono Battisti A., Norris J. E., Tailo M., Yong D.

July 2020 ApJ

Gaia and Hubble unveil the kinematics of stellar populations in the Type II globular clusters Omega Centauri and M 22

Internal dynamics of anomalous/type-II globular clusters combining Gaia astrometric information with HST proper motions

PDF Code Project DOI

Cordoni G., Milone A. P., Mastrobuono-Battisti A., Marino A. F., Lagioia E. P., Tailo M., Baumgardt H., Hilker M.

January 2020 ApJ

Three-component Kinematics of Multiple Stellar Populations in Globular Clusters with Gaia and VLT

Analysis of the internal kinematics of multiple stellar populations in 7 galactic Globular clusters

PDF Code Project DOI

Cordoni G., Cignoni M., Lagioia E. P., Tailo M., Marino A. F., Milone A. P.

June 2019 HST proposal

A two orbits proposal to solve the age spread dilemma in young Magellanic Clouds clusters

This is a two-orbits proposal to explore pre-main sequence (pre-MS) stars in Large Magellanic Cloud young clusters to assess, once and for all, if multiple bursts of star formation can be supported by these systems.

Code Project

Cordoni G., Milone A. P., Marino A. F., Di Criscienzo M., D’Antona F., Dotter A., Lagioia E. P., Tailo M.

December 2018 ApJ

Extended main sequence turnoff as a common feature of galactic open clusters

Photometric analysis of the extended Main Sequence Turn-off in 12 Galcactic Open clusters.

PDF Code Project DOI

Recent Publications

Collaboration Network Click on a publication to go to the NASA ADS link.

Photometric binaries, mass functions, and structural parameters of 78 Galactic open clusters

Cordoni G., Milone A. P., Marino A. F., Vesperini E., Dondoglio E., Legnardi M. V., Mohandasan A., Carlos M., Lagioia E. P., Jang S., Ziliotto T.

PDF Code Project

Hubble Space Telescope survey of Magellanic Cloud star clusters. Photometry and astrometry of 113 clusters and early results

Homogeneous HST photometry and astrometry of 113 clusters revels unexpcted results in the context of young star clusters in the …

Milone A. P., Cordoni G., Marino A. F., D’Antona F., Bellini A., Di Criscienzo M., Dondoglio E., Lagioia E. P., Langer N., Legnardi M. V., Libralato M., Baumgardt H., Bettinelli M., Cavecchi Y., de Grijs R., Deng L., Hastings B., Li C., Mohandasan A., Renzini A., Vesperini E., Wang C., Ziliotto T., Carlos M., Costa G., Dell’Agli F., Di Stefano S., Jang S., Martorano M., Simioni M., Tailo M., Ventura P.

PDF Code Project

NGC1818 unveils the origin of the extended main-sequence turn-off in young Magellanic Clouds clusters

The turn-on in the 40 Myr-old cluster NGC1818 exclude the presence of possible age differences among cluster stars, unveiling the …

Cordoni G., Milone A. P., Marino A. F., Cignoni M., Lagioia E. P., Tailo M., Carlos M. G., Dondoglio E., Jang S., Mohandasan A., Legnardi M. V.

PDF Code Project Project

Exploring the Galaxy's halo and very metal weak thick disk with SkyMapper and Gaia DR2

Galactic archeology with the dynamics of Extremely Metal-Poor stras from the SkyMapper survey for Extremely Metal-Poor.

Cordoni G., Da Costa G. S., Yong D., Mackey A. D., Marino A. F., Monty S., Nordlander T., Norris J. E., Asplund M., Bessell M. S., Casey A. R., Frebel A., Lind K., Murphy S. J., Schmidt B. P.;, Gao X. D., Xylakis-Dornbusch T., Amarsi A. M., Milone A. P.

PDF Code Project Poster Video