Astronomy Colloquium - Nelson Caldwell

Event time: 
Thursday, October 13, 2016 - 2:30pm
Speaker: 
Nelson Caldwell
Speaker Institution: 
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Talk Title: 
Star Clusters in the Andromeda Galaxy
Event description: 

There are more than 400 globular star clusters associated with M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, and more than 2000 cataloged younger disk clusters. I’ll talk about efforts to distinguish the two types using spectroscopy and imaging, discuss how mean iron abundance and kinematics may be used to identify separate groups of globulars, and show how the mean kinematics and metallicity distribution of the globulars differ from similar clusters in the Milky Way. The M31 PHAT survey has provided resolved star photometry of many of these clusters, leading to the discovery of several new clusters and providing much material for future studies of individual clusters. M31 is festooned with streams apparently from derelict dwarf galaxies; the difficult search for globulars associated with these will also be touched upon.

Location: 
Watson Center A-51 See map
60 Sachem Street
New Haven, CT 06511