A detailed investigation of multiple populations in Milky Way globular clusters
Facts
- Contact person:
- Henrik Jönsson
- Financer:
-
- The Swedish Research Council
- Responsible at MaU:
- Henrik Jönsson
- Time frame:
- 01 January 2025 - 31 December 2029
- Faculty/department:
- Research subject:
-
- Physical Sciences
- Astrophysics
- Astronomy
Projekt description
The so called "multiple populations problem" of globular clusters, is something as unusual as a "clean" experiment in astronomy, with a large number of different undisturbed objects with a diversity in the relevant parameters to study. Since the problem's solution would have huge implications for diverse fields of astrophysics, it has attracted great attention for several years, with many high-impact publications and discoveries.
However, all explanations for the existence of multiple populations in globular clusters have failed. What all three reviews of this field during the last years (2018, 2019, 2022) agree on, is that what is needed is a large, homogeneously analyzed dataset of abundances in globular cluster stars to test the different theories against. In this project, we bring together the expertise, exquisite dataset, novel methodology, and equipment needed to provide this dataset that finally will put this problem to rest.