Dr. Michael Fall
STScI

University of Florida Astronomy Colloquium - Jan. 31st, 2007

Formation and Disruption of Globular Star Clusters

This talk begins with a brief review of some of the big-picture issues regarding the formation and disruption of globular star clusters. In the remainder of the talk, we present results from our group at STScI, aimed at understanding and resolving some of these issues. We obtain insights into the formation and early disruption of globular clusters from HST observations of young cluster populations in nearby galaxies. The key here is the large population of clusters in the interacting and merging Antennae galaxies. We obtain insights into the later disruption of clusters from our theoretical calculations. Taken together, these and other studies are beginning to reveal a new and compehensive picture of star cluster populations.