SCYON Abstract

Received on September 8 2003

Young star clusters: Metallicity tracers in external galaxies

AuthorsPeter Anders (1), Uta Fritze-v. Alvensleben (1), Richard de Grijs (2)
Affiliation
(1) Universitaets-Sternwarte Goettingen, Geismarlandstrasse 11, 37083 Goettingen, Germany,
(2) Department of Physics & Astronomy, The University of Sheffield, Hicks Building, Hounsfield Road, Sheffield S3 7RH, UK
To appear inScientific Highlights of the IAU, IAU XXV, Sydney, Joint Discussion 21
Contactpanders@uni-sw.gwdg.de
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Abstract

Star cluster formation is a major mode of star formation in the extreme conditions of interacting galaxies and violent starbursts. These newly-formed clusters are built from recycled gas, pre-enriched to various levels within the interacting galaxies. Hence, star clusters of different ages represent a fossil record of the chemical enrichment history of their host galaxy, as well as of the host galaxy's violent star formation history. We present a new set of evolutionary synthesis models of our GALEV code, specifically developed to include the gaseous emission of presently forming star clusters, and a new tool to analyse multi-color observations with our models. First results for newly-born clusters in the dwarf starburst galaxy NGC 1569 are presented.