Chemical composition of stellar populations in ω Centauri
Abstract
We derive abundances of Fe, Na, O, α and s-elements from GIRAFFE@VLT spectra for more than 200 red giant stars in the Milky Way satellite ω Centauri. Our preliminary results are that: (i) we confirm that ω Centauri exhibits large star-to-star metallicity variation (~1.4 dex); (ii) the metallicity distribution reveals the presence of at least five stellar populations with different [Fe/H]; (iii) a distinct Na-O anticorrelation is clearly observed for the metal-poor and metal-intermediate stellar populations while apparently the anticorrelation disappears for the most metal rich populations. Interestingly the Na level grows with iron.
- Publication:
-
Light Elements in the Universe
- Pub Date:
- April 2010
- DOI:
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1001.1500
- Bibcode:
- 2010IAUS..268..183M
- Keywords:
-
- galaxy: stellar content;
- Globular clusters: individual (Omega Centauri);
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 2 pages, 2 figures. To appear in the proceedings of IAU Symp. 268 "Light elements in the Universe" (C. Charbonnel, M. Tosi, F. Primas, C. Chiappini, eds., Cambridge Univ. Press)