Ages, Abundances, and Kinematics of Globular Clusters in NGC 3379 and NGC 4649 with Gemini/GMOS

T. BRIDGES; M. BEASLEY; F. FAIFER; D. FORBES; J. FORTE; K. GEBHARDT; D. HANES; M. NORRIS; M. PIERCE; R. PROCTOR; R. SHARPLES; S. ZEPF

Universidad de Concepción-Chile

Congreso; Globular Clusters: Guides to Galaxies; 2006

ESO-FONDAP Astrophysics Symposia

Globular cluster (GC) spectroscopy is an excellent way to study GC kinematics, ages, and abundances, and galactic dark matter content ([6],[2]). Our group is using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) on the 8m Gemini telescopes to obtain photometry and spectroscopy of GCs in   six early-type galaxies, covering a range of galaxy type, luminosity, and environment. Our photometric results for NGCs 3115, 3379, 3923, 4649, and 524 are presented in Faifer et al. 2006 (these proceedings). Here we discuss the ages, abundances, and kinematics of GCs in NGC 3379 and NGC 4649. NGC 3379 is an intermediate luminosity E in the Leo group at   11 Mpc, while NGC 4649 is a bright E in the Virgo cluster at   17 Mpc. (see [3]; and [4], [1] for further details about NGCs 3379 and 4649 respectively).