Bibcode
Pont, Frédéric; Gallart, Carme; Zinn, Robert; Hardy, Eduardo
Bibliographical reference
Memorie della Società Astronomica Italiana, v.75, p.134 (2004)
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2004
Citations
1
Refereed citations
1
Description
The metallicity distribution of stars in the Fornax dwarf spheroidal
galaxy is studied with infrared Ca II triplet spectroscopy for 117 red
giants, obtained with FORS1 on the VLT. The results reveal a very wide
distribution of metallicities in Fornax, including a surprising
abundance of young, relatively metal-rich stars ([Fe/H]>-0.7). By
combining these metallicities with the position of the stars in the
colour-magnitude diagram, we derive an age-metallicity relation for
Fornax, characterized by sustained star formation and chemical
enrichement in the past few Gyrs. The results are discussed in the
context of the predictions of evolutionary models of dwarf galaxies.