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Star formation history in two fields of the small magellanic cloud bar

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-17, 15:56 authored by Cignoni, M, Andrew ColeAndrew Cole, Tosi, M, Gallagher, JS, Sabbi, E, Anderson, J, Grebel, EK, Nota, A
The Bar is the most productive region of the Small Magellanic Cloud in terms of star formation but also the least studied one. In this paper, we investigate the star formation history of two fields located in the SW and in the NE portion of the Bar using two independent and well-tested procedures applied to the color-magnitude diagrams of their stellar populations resolved by means of deep Hubble Space Telescope photometry. We find that the Bar experienced a negligible star formation activity in the first few Gyr, followed by a dramatic enhancement from 6 to 4Gyr ago and a nearly constant activity since then. The two examined fields differ both in the rate of star formation and in the ratio of recent over past activity, but share the very low level of initial activity and its sudden increase around 5Gyr ago. The striking similarity between the timing of the enhancement and the timing of the major episode in the Large Magellanic Cloud is suggestive of a close encounter triggering star formation.

History

Publication title

Astrophysical Journal

Volume

754

Article number

130

Number

130

Pagination

17

ISSN

0004-637X

Department/School

School of Natural Sciences

Publisher

IOP Science

Place of publication

1427 E 60Th St, Chicago, USA, Il, 60637-2954

Rights statement

Copyright 2012 The American Astronomical Society

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Expanding knowledge in the physical sciences