The ages of individual Red Giant Branch stars can range from 1Gyr old to the age of the Universe, and it is believed that the abundances of most chemical elements in their photospheres remain unchanged with time (those that are not affected by the first dredge-up). This means that they trace the interstellar medium in the galaxy at the time the star formed, and hence the chemical enrichment history of the galaxy. Colour-Magnitude Diagram analysis has shown the Carina dwarf spheroidal to have had an unusually episodic star formation history and this is expected to be reflected in the abundances of different chemical elements.
Cone search capability for table J/A+A/538/A100/table3 (Photometric information for our FLAMES targets)