Blue Straggler stars In Nearby Dwarf Galaxies: A Hard Quest

Yazan Momany (ESO, Chile)
 

There is a fundamental difficulty in tackling the presence and properties of Blue Straggler stars  (BSS) in 
dwarf galaxies.   It is summarised in our inability to firmly disentangle this binary population from  “normal” 
young (1-2 Gyr) main sequence stars. Nevertheless, the increasing number of surveys targeting Local Group 
galaxies has forced astronomers to attempt a characterisation of the BSS in such low-density environment.  
In the following, I will review such attempts, focusing on the encountered similarities or differences with their 
counterparts in the Milky Way clusters and field population.