Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2004-01-28
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
12 pages, 5 figures, to appear in "Reviews in Modern Astronomy" 17
Scientific paper
A new formation scenario for omega-Cen is presented, in which omega-Cen has formed from a star cluster complex (= super-cluster). The star-burst which has led to the formation of this cluster of star clusters was triggered by the infall and destruction of a gas-rich dwarf galaxy during the early build-up phase of the Milky Way. While the star clusters in the super-cluster merge on a few crossing times scale, which is always longer than the individual cluster formation time-scale, they capture stars from the destroyed dwarf galaxy very efficiently. This process makes it possible to explain the age-spread, the spatial and the kinematical differences of the populations observed in omega-Cen. This formation scenario places omega-Cen into the same class of objects as the ultra-compact dwarf galaxies (UCDs) and the faint fuzzy star clusters (FFs).
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