1999/10/12 by T. Smecker-Hane, Tammy A. Smecker-Hane, Georgi Mandushev +14
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9910212
4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in in "Spectro-Photometric Dating of Stars and Galaxies", eds. I. Hubeny, S. Heap & R. Cornett, (ASP: San Francisco), ASP Conf. Series, in press
arxiv created 1999/10/12 · openalex publication_date 1999/10/12 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We report on the chemical abundances of stars in the Carina dwarf spheroidal galaxy (dSph) derived from low-resolution spectra. We have determined values of [Fe/H] for 52 stars from the reduced equivalent width of the Ca II infrared triplet lines. The Carina dSph has a mean metallicity of [Fe/H] = -1.99 +/- 0.08 and an intrinsic metallicity dispersion 0.25 dex (1 sigma). By directly determining the chemical abundances of Carina stars through spectroscopy, we can overcome the age-metallicity degeneracy inherent in color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) and determine its star-formation history with unprecedented accuracy.