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Observations of blue straggler stars in globular clusters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2006

Francesco R. Ferraro  and
Barbara Lanzoni
Francesco R. Ferraro
Affiliation:
Astronomy Department, Bologna University, Via Ranzani 1, I-40127 Bologna, Italy email: francesco.ferraro3@unibo.it
Barbara Lanzoni
Affiliation:
INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, Via Ranzani 1, I-40127 Bologna, Italy email: barbara.lanzoni@bo.astro.it
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Abstract

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Blue stragglers stars (BSS) define a sparsely populated sequence extending to higher luminosity than the turnoff point of normal main sequence stars in the color magnitude diagrams of stellar aggregates, thus mimicking a rejuvenated (more massive) stellar population. The nature of these stars has been a puzzle for many years and their formation mechanism is not completely understood, yet. Two mechanisms have been proposed to produce BSS: (i) the mass transfer in binary systems; and ((ii) the merger of two stars induced by stellar interactions. In this contribution we schematically report on the main properties of BSS in globular clusters (GCs) in the light of the most recent photometric and spectroscopic observations. These results, combined with dynamical simulations, indicate that both the proposed formation mechanisms play an important role in the production of BSS in GCs.

Keywords

stars: blue stragglersstars: Population IIstars:evolutiontechniques: photometrictechniques: spectroscopic
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 2 , Highlights of Astronomy 14: Highlights of Astronomy , August 2006 , pp. 438 - 439
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2007

References

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