Multiple stellar populations (MPs) in most star clusters older than 2 Gyr, as seen by lots of spectroscopic and photometric studies, have led to a significant challenge to the traditional view of star formation. In this field, spacebased instruments, in particular the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), have made a breakthrough as they significantly improved the efficiency of detecting MPs in crowded stellar fields by images. The China Space Station Telescope (CSST) and the HST are sensitive to a similar wavelength interval, but the CSST covers a field of view which is about 5–8 times wider than that of HST. One of its instruments, the Multi-Channel Imager (MCI), will have multiple filters covering a wide wavelength range from NUV to NIR, making the CSST a potentially powerful tool for studying MPs in clusters. In this work, we evaluate the efficiency of the designed filters for the MCI/CSST in revealing MPs in different color–magnitude diagrams (CMDs). We find that CMDs made with MCI/CSST photometry in appropriate UV filters are powerful tools to disentangle stellar populations with different abundances of He, C, N, O and Mg. On the contrary, the traditional CMDs are blind to multiple populations in globular clusters (GCs). We show that CSST has the potential of being the spearhead instrument for investigating MPs in GCs in the next decades.

Chengyuan Li;Zhenya Zheng;Xiaodong Li;Xiaoying Pang;Baitian Tang;Antonino P.Milone;Yue Wang;Haifeng Wang;Dengkai Jiang

School of Physics and Astronomy,Sun Yat-sen University,Daxue Road,Zhuhai,Guangdong 519082,China;CSST Science Center for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area,Zhuhai 519082,China;CAS Key Laboratory for Research in Galaxies and Cosmology,Shanghai Astronomical Observatory,Shanghai 200030,China;Division of Optical Astronomical Technologies,Shanghai Astronomical Observatory,Shanghai 200030,China;Department of Physics,Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University,Suzhou 215123,China;Shanghai Key Laboratory for Astrophysics,Shanghai Normal University,100 Guilin Road,Shanghai 200234,China;Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia"Galileo Galilei",Universitàdi Padova,Vicolo dell'Osservatorio 3,I-35122,Padua,Italy;Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica—Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova,Vicolo dell'Osservatorio 5,IT-35122,Padua,Italy;Key Laboratory of Optical Astronomy,National Astronomical Observatories,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100101,China;0 GEPI,Observatoire de Paris,UniversitéPSL,CNRS,Place Jules Janssen F-92195,Meudon,France;1 Yunnan Observatories,Chinese Academy of Sciences,396 Yangfangwang,Guandu District,Kunming 650216,China;2 Key Laboratory for the Structure and Evolution of Celestial Objects,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Kunming 650216,China;3 Center for Astronomical Mega-Science,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100101,China

天文和天体物理学研究

[1]Chengyuan Li;Zhenya Zheng;Xiaodong Li;Xiaoying Pang;Baitian Tang;Antonino P.Milone;Yue Wang;Haifeng Wang;Dengkai Jiang-.Searching for Multiple Populations in Star Clusters Using the China Space Station Telescope)[J].天文和天体物理学研究,2022(09):47-62

spacebased,CMDs,spearhead

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