The Carina dSph as a key laboratory to constrain formation and evolution of dwarf galaxies

Giuseppe Bono (Univ. of Rome Tor Vergata)

Nearby dwarf galaxies play a crucial role in constraining the formation and evolution of galaxies. Stellar populations in nearby dwarfs are also fundamental to understand the impact of environment on the evolution of metal-poor stellar systems. This means that nearby dwarfs are the crossroad for both cosmology and stellar evolution.
The Milky Way satellites display a broad metallicity distribution, suggesting that the environment plays a key role in the chemical evolution of these fluffy stellar systems. Moreover, there is evidence that dwarf galaxies show a complex kinematic structure probably reminiscent either of a disk or of a bulge.
We present accurate iron abundances for a sizable sample of red giants in the Carina dSph based on spectra collected with UVES at ESO/VLT. We discuss preliminary evidence concerning NLTE effects between FeI and FeII. Moreover, we will also present preliminary results concerning the Carina kinematic structure. We are using a very large data set of homogeneous radial velocity measurements covering the entire body of the galaxy. We found evidence of two different kinematic components that seem to
be correlated with different Carina sub-populations. Finally, we mention some possible future avenues.