Blue straggler evolution caught in the act in the Large Magellanic Cloud
  globular cluster Hodge 11
  High-resolution {\sl Hubble Space Telescope} imaging observations show that
the radial distribution of the field-decontaminated sample of 162 'blue
straggler' stars (BSs) in the $11.7^{+0.2}_{-0.1}$ Gyr-old Large Magellanic
Cloud cluster Hodge 11 exhibits a clear bimodality. In combination with their
distinct loci in color--magnitude space, this offers new evidence in support of
theoretical expectations that suggest different BS formation channels as a
function of stellar density. In the cluster's color--magnitude diagram, the BSs
in the inner 15$"$ (roughly corresponding to the cluster's core radius) are
located more closely to the theoretical sequence resulting from stellar
collisions, while those in the periphery (at radii between 85$"$ and 100$"$)
are preferentially found in the region expected to contain objects formed
through binary mass transfer or coalescence. In addition, the objects'
distribution in color--magntiude space provides us with the rare opportunity in
an extragalactic environment to quantify the evolution of the cluster's
collisionally induced BS population and the likely period that has elapsed
since their formation epoch, which we estimate to have occurred $\sim$4--5 Gyr
ago.
