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Space-Based UV/Optical Wide-Field Imaging and Spectroscopy: Near-Field Cosmology and Galaxy Evolution Using Globular Clusters in Nearby Galaxies

Star formation plays a central role in the evolution of galaxies and of the Universe as a whole. Studies of star-forming regions in the local universe have shown that star formation typically occurs in a clustered fashion. Building a coherent picture of how star clusters form and evolve is therefore critical to our overall understanding of the star formation process. Most clusters disrupt after they form, thus contributing to the field star population. However, the most massive and dense clusters remain bound and survive for a Hubble time. These globular clusters provide unique observational probes of the formation history of their host galaxies. In particular, the age and metallicity can be determined for each globular cluster individually, allowing the distribution of ages and metallicities within host galaxies to be constrained. We show how space-based UV-to-near-IR imaging covering a wide field of view (>= 20 arcmin per axis) and deep UV/Optical multi-object spectroscopy of globular cluster systems in nearby galaxies would allow one to place important new constraints on the formation history of early-type galaxies and their structural subcomponents (e.g., bulge, halo).