Related papers: Ancient relic moderately metal-rich bulge cluster …
Terzan 5 is a heavily obscured stellar system located in the inner Galaxy. It has been postulated to be a stellar relic, a Bulge Fossil Fragment witnessing the complex history of the assembly of the Milky Way bulge. In this paper, we follow…
(ABRIDGED) Globular clusters trace the formation and evolution of the Milky Way and surrounding galaxies, and outline their chemical enrichment history. To accomplish these tasks it is important to have large samples of clusters with…
(ABRIDGED) We have performed the first detailed spectral analysis of red giant members of the relatively high-metallicity globular cluster (GC) Tononzintla~2 (Ton~2) using high-resolution near-infrared spectra collected with the Apache…
The information on Galactic assembly time is imprinted on the chemodynamics of globular clusters. This makes them important probes that help us to understand the formation and evolution of the Milky Way. Discerning between in-situ and…
The Galactic bulge hosts the Milky Way's oldest stars, possibly coming from disrupted globular clusters (GCs) or the bulge's primordial building blocks, making these stars witnesses to the Galaxy's early chemical enrichment. The Galactic…
Globular star clusters are compact and massive stellar systems old enough to have witnessed the entire history of our Galaxy, the Milky Way. Although recent results suggest that their formation may have been more complex than previously…
The investigation of the metal-poor tail in the Galactic bulge provides unique information on the early Milky Way assembly and evolution. A chemo-dynamical analysis of 17 very metal-poor stars (VMP, [Fe/H] $<-2.0$) selected from the…
We used a set of moderately-deep and high-resolution optical observations obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope to investigate the properties of the stellar population in the heavily obscured bulge globular cluster NGC 6256. The analysis…
The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is the Milky Way's most massive satellite galaxy, which only recently (~2 billion years ago) fell into our Galaxy. Since stellar atmospheres preserve their natal cloud's composition, the LMC's recent infall…
Recent studies show that the inner Galactic regions host genuine bulge globular clusters, but also halo intruders, complex remnants of primordial building blocks, and objects likely accreted during major merging events. In this study we…
The formation and evolution of galaxy bulges is one of the most debated topics in the modern astrophysics. One approach to address this issue is to look at the Galactic bulge since it is the closest. According to some theoretical models,…
We present a detailed elemental abundance study of 90 F and G dwarf, turn-off and subgiant stars in the Galactic bulge. Based on high-resolution spectra acquired during gravitational microlensing events, stellar ages and abundances for 11…
We compare [alpha/Fe], metallicity, and age distributions of globular clusters in elliptical, lenticular, and spiral galaxies, which we derive from Lick line index measurements. We find a large number of globular clusters in elliptical…
The bulge is the oldest component of the Milky Way. Since numerous simulations of Milky Way formation have predicted that the oldest stars at a given metallicity are found on tightly bound orbits, the Galaxy's oldest stars are likely…
The dominant stellar population of the central bulge of the Milky Way is old, with roughly solar metallicity. The age is very similar to that of the old metal rich bulge globular clusters and to 47 Tucanae, which has an age of 13 Gyr.…
Globular clusters (GCs) are some of the oldest bound structures in the Universe, holding clues to the earliest epochs of star formation and galaxy assembly. However, accurate age measurements of ancient clusters are challenging due to the…
The object ESO456-SC38 (Djorgovski 2) is one of the globular clusters that is closest to the Galactic center. It is on the blue horizontal branch and has a moderate metallicity of [Fe/H]~-1.0. It is thus similar to the very old inner bulge…
Globular clusters are some of the oldest bound stellar structures observed in the Universe. They are ubiquitous in large galaxies and are believed to trace intense star formation events and the hierarchical build-up of structure.…
HP$\,$1 is an $\alpha$-enhanced and moderately metal-poor bulge globular cluster with a blue horizontal branch. These combined characteristics make it a probable relic of the early star formation in the innermost Galactic regions. Here we…
Intrinsic iron abundance spreads in globular clusters, although usually small, are very common, and are signatures of self enrichment: some stars within the cluster have been enriched by supernova ejecta from other stars within the same…