Equivalent widths for 13 NGC2419 RGB stars

Although the cluster is among the most distant and most luminous in the Milky Way, it was considered chemically ordinary until very recently. Our previous work showed that the near-infrared Ca II triplet line strength varied more than expected for a chemically homogeneous cluster, and that at least one star had unusual abundances of Mg and K. Here, we confirm that NGC 2419 harbors a population of stars, comprising about one-third of its mass, that is depleted in Mg by a factor of eight and enhanced in K by a factor of six with respect to the Mg-normal population.

Although the majority, Mg-normal population appears to have a chemical abundance pattern indistinguishable from ordinary, inner-halo GCs, the Mg-poor population exhibits dispersions of several elements. The abundances of K and Sc are strongly anti-correlated with Mg, and some other elements (Si and Ca among others) are weakly anti-correlated with Mg. These abundance patterns suggest that the different populations of NGC 2419 sample the ejecta of diverse supernovae in addition to asymptotic giant branch ejecta.