Related papers: The Second-Parameter Effect in Metal-Rich Globular…
We present a comparison of CN bandstrength variations in the high-metallicity globular clusters NGC 6356 and NGC 6528 with those measured in the old open clusters NGC 188, NCG 2158 and NGC 7789. Star-to-star abundance variations, of which…
We present new HST ultraviolet color-magnitude diagrams of 5 massive Galactic globular clusters: NGC 2419, NGC 6273, NGC 6715, NGC 6388, and NGC 6441. These observations were obtained to investigate the "blue hook" phenomenon previously…
Recent pieces of evidence have revealed that most, and possibly all, globular star clusters are composed of groups of stars that formed in multiple episodes with different chemical compositions. In this sense, it has also been argued that…
Information on globular clusters (GC) formation mechanisms can be gathered by studying the chemical signature of the multiple populations that compose these stellar systems. In particular, we are investigating the anticorrelations among O,…
The horizontal branch (HB) morphology of globular clusters (GCs) is mainly determined by metallicity. However, the fact that GCs with almost the same metallicity exhibit different HB morphologies demonstrates that at least one more…
Most Globular Clusters (GC) show chemical inhomogeneities in the composition of their stars, apparently due to a second stellar generation (SG) in which the forming gas is enriched by hot-CNO cycled material processed in stars belonging to…
We present photometry for the globular cluster NGC 6642 using the F606W and F814W filters with the ACS/WFC third generation camera on board of Hubble Space Telescope. The Colour Magnitude Diagram shows sources reaching ~ 6 mags below the…
The formation of populous secondary star cluster systems is a widespread phenomenon in mergers of gas-rich galaxies. Many, if not most, of those clusters are massive and compact enough to be young globular clusters (GCs). GC systems in most…
Multiple populations revealed in globular clusters (GCs) are important windows to the formation and evolution of these stellar systems. The metal-rich GCs in the Galactic bulge are an indispensable part of this picture, but the high optical…
We provide a high dispersion line-by-line abundance analysis of five red HB stars in the extremely metal rich galactic globular cluster NGC 6553. These red HB stars are significantly hotter than the very cool stars near the tip of the giant…
Globular clusters display significant variations in their light-element content, pointing to the existence of a second stellar generation formed from the ejecta of an earlier generation. The nature of these internal polluters is still a…
Atmospheric parameters (effective temperature, surface gravity) and radial velocities are derived for 12 candidate blue horizontal branch (HB) stars in the globular clusters 47 Tuc and NGC 362, which so far have been known to contain…
In the last few years many globular clusters (GCs) have revealed complex color-magnitude diagrams, with the presence of multiple main sequences (MSs), broaden or multiple sub-giant branches (SGBs) and MS turn offs, and broad or split red…
We present Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 photometry in the V and I passbands of the recently discovered Local Group dwarf spheroidal galaxy in Cetus. Our color-magnitude diagram extends from above the first ascent red…
From deep color-magnitude arrays made from V and I images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope's WFPC2 camera we have determined luminosity functions (LFs) down to a level that corresponds to about 0.13 solar masses, for the…
We present high-quality near-Infrared photometry of four Bulge metal-rich globular clusters, namely: NGC 6304, NGC 6569, NGC 6637 and NGC 6638. By using the observed Colour-Magnitude Diagrams we derived a photometric estimates of the…
We present chemical abundances in three red giants and two turn-off stars in the metal poor Galactic globular cluster (GC) NGC 6397 based on spectroscopy obtained with the MIKE high resolution spectrograph on the Magellan 6.5-m Clay…
The metal-rich and old bulge globular cluster (GC) NGC 6388 is one of the most massive Galactic GCs (M ~ 10^6 Msun). However, the spectroscopic properties of its multiple stellar populations rested only on 32 red giants (only seven of which…
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…
The presence of a substantial number of hot stars in the extremely metal-rich} open cluster NGC6791 has been a mystery. If these hot stars are in their core helium burning phase, they are significantly bluer (hotter) than predicted by…