Issue |
A&A
Volume 520, September-October 2010
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A95 | |
Number of page(s) | 21 | |
Section | Extragalactic astronomy | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201014924 | |
Published online | 08 October 2010 |
Detailed abundances of a large sample of giant stars in M 54 and in the Sagittarius nucleus *,**,***
1
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, via Ranzani 1, 40127 Bologna, Italy e-mail: eugenio.carretta@oabo.inaf.it
2
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Vicolo dell'Osservatorio 5, 35122 Padova, Italy
3
Excellence Cluster Universe, Technische Universität München, Boltzmannstr. 2, 85748 Garching, Germany
4
INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania, via S.Sofia 78, 95123 Catania, Italy
5
Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Catania, via S.Sofia 78, 95123 Catania, Italy
6
European Southern Observatory, Alonso de Cordova 3107, Vitacura, Santiago, Chile
7
Dipartimento di Astronomia, Università di Padova, Vicolo dell'Osservatorio 2, 35122 Padova, Italy
Received:
4
May
2010
Accepted:
21
June
2010
Homogeneous abundances of light elements, α-elements, and Fe-group elements from high-resolution FLAMES spectra are presented for 76 red giant stars in NGC 6715 (M 54), a massive globular cluster (GC) lying in the nucleus of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy. We also derived detailed abundances for 27 red giants belonging to the Sgr nucleus. Our abundances measure the intrinsic metallicity dispersion (~0.19 dex, rms scatter) of M 54, with the bulk of stars peaking at [Fe/H] ~ -1.6 and a long tail extending to higher metallicities, similar to ω Cen. The spread in these probable nuclear star clusters exceeds those of most GCs: these massive clusters are located in a region intermediate between normal GCs and dwarf galaxies. The GC M 54 exibits a Na-O anticorrelation, a typical signature of GCs, which is instead absent for the Sgr nucleus. The light elements (Mg, Al, Si) participating in the high temperature Mg-Al cycle show that the entire pattern of (anti)correlations produced by proton-capture reactions in H-burning is clearly different between the most metal-rich and most metal-poor components in the two most massive GCs in the Galaxy, confirming early results based on the Na-O anticorrelation. As in ω Cen, stars affected by most extreme processing, i.e. showing the signature of more massive polluters, are those of the metal-rich component. These observations can be understood if the burst of star formation giving birth to the metal-rich component was delayed by as much as 10–30 Myr with respect to the metal-poor one. The evolution of these massive GCs can be easily reconciled in the general scenario for the formation of GCs sketched previously by ourselves, taking into account that ω Cen may have already incorporated the surrounding nucleus of its progenitor and lost the remainder of the hosting galaxy while the two are still observable as distinct components in M 54 and the surrounding field.
Key words: stars: abundances / stars: atmospheres / stars: Population II / globular clusters: individual: NGC 6715 (M 54) / globular clusters: individual: NGC 5139 (ω Cen) / globular clusters: general
Appendix is only available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org
Tables 2, 3, and 5–7 are only available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/520/A95
© ESO, 2010
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.