No Arabic abstract
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 NGC 6522, NGC 6558, and HP 1, and therefore appears to be part of the primeval formation stages of the Milky Way. The aim of this work is to determine an accurate distance and metallicity for ESO456-SC38, as well as orbital parameters, in order to check similarities with other clusters in the inner bulge that have previously been well studied in terms of spectroscopy and photometry. This is a considerably fainter cluster that is contaminated by a rich stellar field; it is also quite absorbed by the dusty foreground. We analyzed ESO456-SC38 based on Hubble Space Telescope photometry, with the filters F606W from ACS, F110W and F160W from WFC3,and photometry in V and I from FORS2 at the VLT. We combined this with identified stars that are covered by Gaia Data Release 2. The isochrone fitting was carried out with the statistical Markov chain Monte Carlo method. We derive an accurate distance of dSun = 8.75+-0.12 kpc and a reddening of E(B-V)=0.81^+0.02_-0.02. The best-fitting BaSTI isochrones correspond to an age of 12.70^{+0.72}_{-0.69} Gyr and a metallicity of [Fe/H]=-1.11^{+0.03}_{-0.03}. ESO 456-SC38 adds to the list of moderately metal-poor globular clusters located in the inner bulge. It is on the blue horizontal branch and is very old. The cluster is confined to the bulge and bar region, but it does not support the Galactic bar structure. The old stellar population represented by clusters like this has to be taken into account in models of Galactic bulge formation. Studying them also provides indications on the formation times of the globular clusters themselves.
It has been suggested that the oldest stellar populations in the Milky Way Galaxy are tightly bound and confined to the central regions of the Galaxy. This is one of the reasons why a handful of globular clusters located in the bulge region are thought to be remnants of the primeval formation stages of the Milky Way. The globular cluster, ESO 456-SC38 (Djorgovski~2) is one such cluster; it has a blue horizontal branch, is projected very close to the center of the Galaxy, and has an orbit confining it to the bulge/bar region. The first alpha abundances of seven stars in this heavily reddened cluster are presented using APOGEE DR16. A significant spread in the abundances of N, C, Na, and Al indicates the presence of multiple stellar populations in this cluster. Using Gaia DR2 proper motions and radial velocities from BRAVA-RR, we confirm RR Lyrae stars belong to this globular cluster.
We obtained FLAMES GIRAFFE+UVES spectra for both first and second-generation red giant branch (RGB) stars in the globular cluster (GC) NGC 362 and used them to derive abundances of 21 atomic species for a sample of 92 stars. The surveyed elements include proton-capture (O, Na, Mg, Al, Si), alpha-capture (Ca, Ti), Fe-peak (Sc, V, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu), and neutron-capture elements (Y, Zr, Ba, La, Ce, Nd, Eu, Dy). The analysis is fully consistent with that presented for twenty GCs in previous papers of this series. Stars in NGC 362 seem to be clustered into two discrete groups along the Na-O anti-correlation, with a gap at [O/Na] 0 dex. Na-rich, second generation stars show a trend to be more centrally concentrated, although the level of confidence is not very high. When compared to the classical second-parameter twin NGC 288, with similar metallicity, but different horizontal branch type and much lower total mass, the proton-capture processing in stars of NGC 362 seems to be more extreme, confirming previous analysis. We discovered the presence of a secondary RGB sequence, redder than the bulk of the RGB: a preliminary estimate shows that this sequence comprises about 6% of RGB stars. Our spectroscopic data and literature photometry indicate that this sequence is populated almost exclusively by giants rich in Ba, and probably rich in all s-process elements, as found in other clusters. In this regards, NGC 362 joins previously studied GCs like NGC 1851, NGC 6656 (M 22), and NGC 7089 (M 2).
Globular Clusters are among the oldest objects in the Galaxy, thus their researchers are key to understanding the processes of evolution and formation that the galaxy has experienced in early stages. Spectroscopic studies allow us to carry out detailed analyzes on the chemical composition of Globular Clusters. The aim of our research is to perform a detailed analysis of chemical abundances to a sample of stars of the Bulge Globular Cluster NGC 6553, in order to determine chemical patterns that allow us to appreciate the phenomenon of Multiple Population in one of the most metal-rich Globular Clusters in the Galaxy. This analysis is being carried out with data obtained by FLAMES/GIRAFFE spectrograph, VVV Survey and DR2 of Gaia Mission. We analyzed 20 Red Horizontal Branch Stars, being the first extensive spectroscopic abundance analysis for this cluster and measured 8 chemical elements (O, Na, Mg, Si, Ca, Ti, Cr and Ni), deriving a mean iron content of $[Fe/H] = -0.10pm0.01$ and a mean of $[alpha/Fe] = 0.21pm0.02$, considering Mg, Si, Ca and Ti (errors on the mean). We found a significant spread in the content of Na but a small or negligible in O. We did not find an intrinsic variation in the content of $alpha$ and iron-peak elements, showing a good agreement with the trend of the Bulge field stars, suggesting a similar origin and evolution.
We used high-resolution optical HST/WFC3 and multi-conjugate adaptive optics assisted GEMINI GeMS/GSAOI observations in the near-infrared to investigate the physical properties of the globular cluster NGC 6569 in the Galactic bulge. We have obtained the deepest purely NIR color-magnitude diagram published so far for this cluster using ground-based observations, reaching $K_{s}$ $approx$ 21.0 mag (two magnitudes below the main-sequence turn-off point). By combining the two datasets secured at two different epochs, we determined relative proper motions for a large sample of individual stars in the center of NGC 6569, allowing a robust selection of cluster member stars. Our proper motion analysis solidly demonstrates that, despite its relatively high metal content, NGC 6569 hosts some blue horizontal branch stars. A differential reddening map has been derived in the direction of the system, revealing a maximum color excess variation of about $delta E(B-V)$ $sim$ 0.12 mag in the available field of view. The absolute age of NGC 6569 has been determined for the first time. In agreement with the other few bulge globular clusters with available age estimates, NGC 6569 turns out to be old, with an age of about 12.8 Gyr, and a typical uncertainty of 0.8-1.0 Gyr.
We analyse the globular cluster (GC) systems of a sample of 15 massive, compact early-type galaxies (ETGs), 13 of which have already been identified as good relic galaxy candidates on the basis of their compact morphologies, old stellar populations and stellar kinematics. These relic galaxy candidates are likely the nearby counterparts of high redshift red nugget galaxies. Using F814W (~I) and F160W (~H) data from the WFC3 camara onboard the Hubble Space Telescope we determine the total number, luminosity function, specific frequency, colour and spatial distribution of the GC systems. We find lower specific frequencies (SN<2.5 with a median of SN=1) than ETGs of comparable mass. This is consistent with a scenario of rapid, early dissipative formation, with relatively low levels of accretion of low-mass, high-SN satellites. The GC half-number radii are compact, but follow the relations found in normal ETGs. We identify an anticorrelation between the specific angular momentum (lambda_R) of the host galaxy and the (I-H) colour distribution width of their GC systems. Assuming that lambda_R provides a measure of the degree of dissipation in massive ETGs, we suggest that the (I-H) colour distribution width can be used as a proxy for the degree of complexity of the accretion histories in these systems.