Related papers: Clusters: age scales for stellar physics
The heated debate on the importance of stellar rotation and age spreads in massive star clusters has just become hotter by throwing stellar variability into the mix.
The origin of the chemical anomalies in star clusters is still an open question, although much effort has been employed both from a theoretical and observational point of view. The exploration of whether such multiple stellar populations…
Globular clusters are collisional systems, meaning that the stars inside them interact on timescales much shorter than the age of the Universe. These frequent interactions transfer energy between stars and set up observable trends that tell…
This review covers age-dating methods applied to young stellar populations in starburst galaxies with ages of 10^8 yr and less. First, recent advances in stellar modeling, both for the interior and the atmospheres, are discussed and…
Globular clusters are the oldest objects in the Galaxy whose age may be accurately determined. As such globular cluster ages provide the best estimate for the age of the universe. The age of a globular cluster is determined by a comparison…
We determine the age of 1,104 early-type galaxies in eight rich clusters ($z = 0.0046$ to $0.175$) using a new continuum color technique. We find that galaxies in clusters divide into two populations, an old population with a mean age…
Star clusters and their stellar populations play a significant role in the context of galaxy evolution, across space (from local to high redshift) and time (from currently forming to fossil remnants). We are now within reach of answering a…
Determining the sequence of events in the formation of stars and planetary systems and their time-scales is essential for understanding those processes, yet establishing ages is fundamentally difficult because we lack direct indicators. In…
Galactic globular clusters, which are ancient building blocks of our Galaxy, represent a very interesting family of stellar systems in which some fundamental dynamical processes have taken place on time scales shorter than the age of the…
The construction of all age indicators consists of certain basic steps which lead to the identification of the properties desirable for stellar age indicators. Prior age indicators for main sequence field stars possess only some of these…
Around the turn of the last century, star clusters of all kinds were considered "simple" stellar populations. Over the past decade, this situation has changed dramatically. At the same time, star clusters are among the brightest stellar…
Their ubiquity and extreme densities make star clusters probes of prime importance of galaxy evolution. Old globular clusters keep imprints of the physical conditions of their assembly in the early Universe, and younger stellar objects,…
Age dating starbursts is an exercise with many caveats. We attempt to summarise a discussion session that was lead along a rather optimistic guideline: the aim was to highlight that current age estimates, despite undeniable uncertainties,…
The last few years witnessed a change of perspective in the context of galaxy formation and evolution. The major role played by bars in the history of these fundamental building blocks of our universe was finally realized. However, and…
Stellar populations contain the most important information about star clus- ter formation and evolution. Until several decades ago, star clusters were believed to be ideal laboratories for studies of simple stellar populations (SSPs).…
The main sequence turnoff luminosity is the best stellar `clock' which can be used to determine the absolute ages of globular clusters. This is due to the fact that it is generally assumed that the luminosity and lifetimes of main sequence…
Accurate stellar ages remain one of the most poorly constrained, but most desired, astronomical quantities. Here we briefly summarize some recent efforts to improve the stellar age scale from a subset of talks from the ``Stellar Ages''…
The young star clusters we observe today are the building blocks of a new generation of stars and planets in our Galaxy and beyond. Despite their fundamental role we still lack knowledge about the conditions under which star clusters form…
The evolution of star clusters is determined by several internal and external processes. Here we focus on two dominant internal effects, namely energy exchange between stars through close encounters (two-body relaxation) and mass-loss of…
Star clusters provide an excellent opportunity to study the role of environment on determining the frequencies of short period planets. They provide a large sample of stars which can be imaged simultaneously, with a common distance, age and…