Related papers: New HST Views at Old Stellar Systems
This conference demonstrated the tremendous progress that has been made in the last decade in our observational and theoretical understanding of compact, young, massive star clusters. One of the Hubble Space Telescope's main achievements…
We revisit the determination of the age of the Universe from galactic globular clusters, extending previous analyses by explicitly accounting for the presence of multiple stellar populations within each cluster. Using high--quality…
Almost several decades after the discovery of the first multiple populations in galactic globular clusters (GC) the debate on their formation is still extremely current and NGC2808 remains one of the best benchmark to test any scenario for…
Large galaxies grow through the accumulation of dwarf galaxies. In principle it is possible to trace this growth history using the properties of a galaxy's stellar halo. Previous investigations of the galaxy M31 (Andromeda) have shown that…
The Galactic Bulge has long been assumed to be a largely old stellar population. However, some recent studies based on observations with the HST WF/PC-1 and WFPC2 of stars in the Galactic Bulge have concluded that the old population may not…
We derive ages, metallicities and [alpha/Fe] ratios from the integrated spectra of 23 globular clusters in M31, by employing multivariate fits to two stellar population models. In parallel we analyze spectra of 21 Galactic globular clusters…
The UV properties of old stellar populations have been subject of intense scrutiny from the late sixties, when the UV-upturn in early type galaxies was first discovered. Because of their proximity and relative simplicity, Galactic globular…
Globular clusters (GCs) are the oldest stellar systems in the Milky Way. Long time considered as simple stellar populations, nowadays we recognize their complex star formation history through precise abundance analysis of a variety of…
We present spectroscopic ages, metallicities, and [alpha/Fe] ratios for 70 globular clusters in M31 that were derived from Lick line-index measurements. In addition to a population of old (>10 Gyr) globular clusters with a wide range of…
The current census of, and stellar population in, massive Galactic star clusters is reviewed. In particular, we concentrate on a recent survey of obscured Galactic Giant H II (GHII) regions and the associated stellar clusters embedded in…
There is increasing evidence that some massive globular clusters (GCs) host multiple stellar populations having different heavy element abundances enriched by supernovae. They usually accompany multiple red giant branches (RGBs) in the…
The outer regions of galaxies are expected to contain important clues about the way in which galaxies are assembled. Although quantitative study of these parts has been severely limited in the past, breakthroughs are now being made thanks…
Recent UV observations of the most massive Galactic globular clusters show a significant population of hot stars below the zero-age HB (``blue hook'' stars), which cannot be explained by canonical stellar evolution. Stars which suffer…
We used a combination of optical and near-UV Hubble Space Telescope photometry and FLAMES/ESO-VLT high-resolution spectroscopy to characterize the stellar content of the old and massive globular cluster (GC) NGC121 in the Small Magellanic…
The observed abundance variations in globular cluster red giants indicate that these stars may be mixing helium from the hydrogen shell outward into the envelope, presumably as a result of internal rotation. We have investigated the…
Helium variations are common features of globular clusters (GCs) with multiple stellar populations. All the formation scenarios predict that secondary population stars are enhanced in helium but the exact helium content depends on the…
The properties of old globular cluster systems (GCSs) in galaxy halos offer unique insight into the physical processes that conspire to form any generic star cluster, at any epoch. Presented here is a summary of the information obtained…
The discovery of a large population of intra-cluster star clusters in the central region of the Hydra I and Centaurus galaxy clusters is presented. Based on deep VLT photometry (V,I), many star clusters have been identified not only around…
Stellar mass distribution in M31 is estimated using optical and infrared imaging data. Combining the derived stellar mass model with various kinematical data, properties of the DM halo of the galaxy are constrained. SDSS observations…
Recent work has shown that Milky Way-mass galaxies display an incredible range of stellar halo properties, yet the origin of this diversity is unclear. The nearby galaxy M81 $-$ currently interacting with M82 and NGC 3077 $-$ sheds unique…