Objective
"In the Galactic halo the footprints of early hierarchical processes can be easily recognized, with some still observable events, such as the merging between the Sagittarius galaxy and the Milky Way. With the discovery of multiple stellar populations in globular clusters (GCs), we are entering a new era in the study of the halo. We now know that typical Milky Way GCs host different stellar populations, with some of them resembling the Sagittarius nuclear GC M54, and Omega Centauri, proposed to be the survived nucleus of a dwarf galaxy.
Recent photometric effort has revealed that the ""populations pattern"" in GCs is even more complex than previously believed, with the observation of minor populations for which we still do not have information of their nature, i.e. of their chemical composition.
Many aspects about the nature of GCs are matter of a lively debate: Which is the origin of GCs? Could have some of them been former nuclei of dwarf galaxies? Which is their contribution to the halo? To answer these questions we lack a systematic and comprehensive analysis of the nature of “all” the stellar populations observed in GCs.
Recently we have photometrically detected multiple stellar populations in the young GCs of the Magellanic Clouds (age of few hundreds Myrs). Are these the young counterpart of the old Milky Way GCs (10
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF-EF-RI - RI – Reintegration panelCoordinator
35122 Padova
Italy