AAO Colloquium.

Wednesday, 7 November 2001- 3:30pm ATNF Lecture Theatre

Evidence on the formation of globular clusters from 2dF spectroscopy

Russell Cannon

AAO

It has long been known that red giants in globular clusters show variations in some element abundances, contrary to the old assumption of chemical homogeneity. For such evolved stars, the most likely explanation seemed to be that they had enriched themselves through the convective dredge-up of nuclearly processed material. However, abundance anomalies also exist in little-evolved main sequence stars, implying either a primordial origin or some effect of mass exchange or pollution early in the life of the cluster. 2dF is being used to obtain spectra for large samples of main sequence stars in several clusters, revealing patterns of C, N and Na abundances similar to those seen in giants in the same clusters. One cluster is spectacularly different: Omega Centauri, the most massive of the relatively nearby globulars, shows a wide range of variation of all elements studied, including Ca and Fe; it may be the remnant of the core of a captured dwarf galaxy.