Globular Clusters in the Time of the JWST. I. Survey Design and First Results on Multiple Populations and Beyond

Clicks: 18
ID: 326398
2026
Free PDF
Article Quality & Performance Metrics
Overall Quality
Not rated
Combines reader engagement with the AI quality analysis. This article has not been analysed, so there is no overall score — reader engagement is measured and shown alongside.
AI Quality Assessment
Not analyzed
Readership in this journal
Steady

Ranked #500 of 1,327 articles by views in monthly notices of the royal astronomical society

Most read Least read

Bar heights use a square-root scale. Only the 120 most-read articles are drawn; the journal has 1,327 in total.

Mint this article as an NFT
Not yet minted

Create a permanent, verifiable on-chain record of this article on the Scimatic Network. The NFT is held in your Journament account, and you can withdraw it to your own wallet at any time.

5 SUSD one-off · no wallet required
Sign in to mint
Abstract
Abstract Globular clusters (GCs) host multiple stellar populations with distinct chemical compositions, but their properties among very low-mass stars remain poorly constrained. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) enables precise infrared studies that are highly sensitive to abundance variations in cool stars. We initiate a homogeneous survey of Galactic GCs, based primarily on deep JWST GO-8960 observations and complemented by archival JWST and Hubble Space Telescope data, to characterize multiple populations across a wide range of cluster properties. In this first paper, we present the survey and initial NIRCam results. We analyze eleven GCs, deriving high-precision photometry and astrometry to measure proper motions. Multiple populations are detected among low-mass stars in all clusters, with diverse behaviors. We find discrete main sequences in NGC 288, NGC 6723, and NGC 2808, and more continuous distributions in NGC 104 and the Type II clusters NGC 1851 and NGC 6656. The bulge clusters NGC 6528, NGC 6553, and NGC 6440 show patterns consistent with varying helium and oxygen abundances that do not scale simply with cluster mass. In Terzan 5 and Liller 1, we identify populations spanning different ages and helium variations within the old population of Terzan 5. We also detect an M-dwarf gap in NGC 104 at ∼0.35M⊙, consistent with the Jao Gap of field stars and open clusters. This work establishes the foundation for a homogeneous JWST survey of Galactic GCs and provides a valuable dataset for studies of cluster evolution, Galactic stellar populations, and background extragalactic sources.
Reference Key
openalex_W7165658112 Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors A. P. Milone, A F Marino, G. Cordoni, E. Dondoglio, M. V. Legnardi, T. Ziliotto, E Bortolan, F. Muratore, F. D'Antona, A. Renzini, G. Girardi, L. Gorza, A. Mastrobuono-Battisti, C. Ventura, P. Ventura, V. Altomonte, L. Bisigello, Y. Cavecchi, F. Dell'Agli, A. Dotter, E. P. Lagioia, C. K. Li, S. Lionetto, A. Marchuk, J. Qi, G. Rodrighiero, M. Tailo, H. Wirth
Are you one of these authors? Claim your profile
Journal monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Year 2026
DOI
10.1093/mnras/stag1597
URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag1597
Keywords Keywords not found

Citations

No citations found. To add a citation, contact the admin at info@scimatic.org

Comments

No comments yet. Be the first to comment on this article.