Chemical abundances of newly discovered old open clusters

• Applicant: Dr. Anna Pasquali
• Subject Area: Astrophysics and Astronomy
• Term: from 2015 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 275654166

Old open clusters are known to be distributed over a large range of distances from the Galactic plane, while younger open clusters are confined to the thin disc. Recently, a list of 139 previously unknown old open clusters has been published, all having in common their peculiar position (high Galactic latitude and short distance to the Sun) and age (more than 1 Gyr). We plan to obtain spectra of likely member stars of three objects from this sample in order to address the question about the origin of old open clusters at large height from the Galactic plane. A chemical analysis based on spectroscopy will provide us with important information about their formation history and relation with their environment.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants