EVIDENCE FOR ENRICHMENT BY SUPERNOVAE IN THE GLOBULAR CLUSTER NGC 6273
- Center for Galaxy Evolution Research and Department of Astronomy, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722 (Korea, Republic of)
In our recent investigation, we showed that narrowband photometry can be combined with low-resolution spectroscopy to effectively search for globular clusters (GCs) with supernova (SN) enrichments. Here we apply this technique to the metal-poor bulge GC NGC 6273 and find that the red giant branch stars in this GC are clearly divided into two distinct subpopulations with different calcium abundances. The Ca rich subpopulation in this GC is also enhanced in CN and CH, showing a positive correlation between them. This trend is identical to the result we found in M22, suggesting that this might be a ubiquitous nature of GCs more strongly affected by SNe in their chemical evolution. Our results suggest that NGC 6273 was massive enough to retain SN ejecta, which would place this cluster in the growing group of GCs with Galactic building block characteristics, such as ω Centauri and Terzan 5.
- OSTI ID:
- 22518688
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 813, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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