Hiding in your MUSE data: Nuclear star clusters and globular clusters

Massive star clusters such as globular clusters (GCs), nuclear star clusters (NSCs) or young massive clusters (YMCs) hold great potential as bright, discrete tracers of galaxy assembly as they retain the chemical and dynamical information of their birthplace and subsequent evolution imprinted in their stellar populations. To make use of this potential, spectroscopic studies of star cluster systems are required. However, multiobject- or slit spectrographs provide only limited information of on the host galaxy and are limited to the outskirts of galaxies. I will review how MUSE's high spatial sampling, wide field of view, and sensitivity has allowed us to study the kinematics and stellar population properties of star clusters directly in comparison with their host galaxy from the same data. I will show how this has enabled studies of globular cluster systems even in the central regions of massive galaxies, which usually are inaccessible with other spectrographs due to crowding and a strong galaxy background. Additionally, I will present how MUSE data has allowed us to identify the dominant nuclear star cluster formation channel in individual galaxies by comparing the ages and metallicities of NSCs with GCs and their host galaxies. We find that NSCs in dwarf galaxies predominantly form from globular clusters while they build their mass from central star formation in massive galaxies.