Nucleosynthesis in the stellar systems Centauri and M22

Abstract

The stellar system Centauri ( Cen) is well known for the large range in elemental abundances among its member stars. Recent work has indicated that the globular cluster M22 (NGC6656) also possesses an internal abundance range, albeit substantially smaller than that in Cen. Here we compare, as a function of [Fe/H], element-to-iron ratios in the two systems for a number of different elements using data from abundance analyses of red giant branch stars. It appears that the nucleosynthetic enrichment processes were very similar in these two systems despite the substantial difference in total mass. © Astronomical Society of Australia 2011.