Related papers: Horizontal Branch Morphology and the 2nd Parameter…
We discuss a 175 deg^2 spectroscopic survey for blue horizontal branch (BHB) stars in the Galactic halo. We use the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to select BHB candidates, and find that the 2MASS…
We present the first photometric results in J, H, and K_s from 2MASS imaging of 10 classical globular clusters in the far outer regions of M31. Combined with the V and I photometric data from previous literature, we constructed the…
A significant fraction of stars in globular clusters (about 70%-85%) exhibit peculiar chemical patterns with strong abundance variations in light elements along with constant abundances in heavy elements. These abundance anomalies can be…
We present results from a photometric H-alpha survey of 22 nuclear rings, aiming to provide insight into their star formation properties, including age distribution, dynamical timescales, star formation rates, and galactic bar influence. We…
The colors of globular clusters in most of large elliptical galaxies are bimodal. This is generally taken as evidence for the presence of two cluster subpopulations that have different geneses. However, here we find that, because of the…
This paper is aimed at emphasizing some of the main hints, constraints and difficulties we currently have in trying to understand how globular clusters formed, along with their multiple stellar generations, an issue that must be regarded as…
We present an empirical assessment of the use of broadband optical colours as age indicators for unresolved extragalactic clusters and investigate stochastic sampling effects on integrated colours. We use the integrated properties of…
This overview summarizes the age dating methods available for young sub-solar mass stars. Pre-main sequence age diagnostics include the Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagram, spectroscopic surface gravity indicators, and lithium depletion;…
AM-1, at ~120 kpc, and Pal 14, at ~70 kpc, are two of the most distant Galactic globular clusters known. We present Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 photometry of AM-1 and Pal 14 that reveals unprecedented depth and detail in the…
We present new UV (F218W) data for stars in the central region of the Galactic globular cluster NGC2808, collected with the WFPC2 camera on board of the Hubble Space Telescope. These data together with F439W and F555W-band data and previous…
We use high-precision photometry of red-giant-branch (RGB) stars in 57 Galactic globular clusters (GCs), mostly from the `Hubble Space Telescope (HST) UV Legacy Survey of Galactic globular clusters', to identify and characterize their…
We review spectroscopic results concerning multiple stellar populations in globularclusters. The cluster initial mass is the most important parameter determining the fraction of second generation stars. The threshold for the onset of the…
Model color magnitude diagrams of low-metallicity globular clusters usually show a deficit of hot evolved stars with respect to observations. We investigate quantitatively the impact of such modelling inaccuracies on the significance of…
We present BV photometry of the Sculptor dwarf galaxy to V=22. These data give evidence for a bimodality in Sculptor's metallicity distribution based on a discontinuity in the luminosities of horizontal branch (HB) stars and by the presence…
We investigate techniques that can be used to determine ages of recently star forming regions during the phase dominated in the near-IR by the asymptotic giant branch stars (10^8-10^9 yrs). In particular, we present selected near-IR…
Following a brief exposition of the morphological process, two examples of its application in contemporary astronomy are presented. The first comprises a major digital, blue-violet spectral classification program on Galactic O stars, that…
Photometry with HST's ACS reveals that the subgiant branch (SGB) of the globular cluster NGC 1851 splits into two well-defined branches. If the split is due only to an age effect, the two SGBs would imply two star formation episodes…
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…
Using Monte Carlo simulations of globular clusters we developed a method separating metallicity effects from age effects on observed integrated ugriz colors. We demonstrate that these colors do not evolve with time significantly after an…
Recent progress in studies of globular clusters has shown that they are not simple stellar populations, being rather made of multiple generations. Evidence stems both from photometry and spectroscopy. A new paradigm is then arising for the…