Chemical analysis of eight giant stars of the globular cluster NGC 6366

Abstract

The metal-rich Galactic globular cluster NGC6366 is the fifth closest to the Sun. Despite its interest, it has received scarce attention, and little is known about its internal structure. Its kinematics suggests a link to the halo, but its metallicity indicates otherwise. We present a detailed chemical analysis of eight giant stars of NGC6366, using high-resolution and highquality spectra (R > 40 000, S/N > 60) obtained at the VLT (8.2 m) and CFHT (3.6 m) telescopes. We attempted to characterize its chemistry and to search for evidence of multiple stellar populations. The atmospheric parameters were derived using the method of excitation and ionization equilibrium of Fe I and Fe II lines and from those atmospheric parameters we calculated the abundances for other elements and found that none of the elements measured presents star-to-star variation greater than the uncertainties. We compared the derived abundances with those of other globular clusters and field stars available in the literature. We determined a mean [Fe/H] = −0.60 ± 0.03 for NGC6366 and found some similarity of this object with M71, another inner halo globular cluster. The Na–O anticorrelation extension is short and no star-to-star variation in Al is found. The presence of second generation stars is not evident in NGC6366.