Joint Astrophysics Colloquium
Joint Astrophysics Seminar
Secrets from the Stellar Nursery
Alison Sills
Department of Physics & Astronomy McMaster
University
Globular clusters are some of the simplest objects in the universe. For
this reason, they are fundamental test beds to understand star formation and
evolution in much more complex systems like galaxies. Globular clusters are
spherical clusters of hundreds of thousands of stars, all of which were formed
at the same time, in the same place and from the same material. They are old,
and have been passively evolving for almost the age of the universe. They
are quite beautiful and also rather boring... or so generations of astronomy
students had been taught until a few years ago.
I will present evidence that these ancient objects have been keeping secrets
from us, and that the events in their stellar nurseries were not quite as
simple as we had thought. There is increasing evidence that there is more
than one stellar generation in globular clusters — not just a single
“baby boom”, but a complex interplay of stellar birth,
death, and rebirth. I will then discuss some of the implications of, and
problems with, this new scenario.
Tuesday, November 27th 2007, 16:00
Ernest Rutherford Physics Building, R.E. Bell Conference Room (room 103)
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