Stellar Populations in the Magellanic Clouds

There seems to be no strong evidence that the young globular clusters in the MC have metallicities differing significantly from the metallicities of MC field stars of the same age. The old globular clusters in the LMC are of the same age as, or slightly younger than, those in the outer halo of our Galaxy. It is suggested that the increase in the SFR in the LMC ∼ 4 Gyr ago was related to the collapse of the system to a plane. Evidence for a spread in metallicities amongst young stars in either Cloud remains tentative. There is no strong evidence for bursts of star formation being triggered by LMC-SMC-Galaxy interactions but the possibility is raised that the SFR in the SMC has been strongly affected by this interaction.