THE 100 Myr STAR FORMATION HISTORY OF NGC 5471 FROM CLUSTER AND RESOLVED STELLAR PHOTOMETRY

Journal Article · Fri Apr 15 04:00:00 EDT 2011 · Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-6256/141/4/126· OSTI ID:21583169

Garcia-Benito, Ruben ^[1]; Perez, Enrique; Maiz Apellaniz, Jesus; Cervino, Miguel ^[2]

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1. Kavli Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University, 100871 Beijing (China)
2. Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, CSIC, Aptdo. Correos 3004, E-18080 Granada (Spain)

We show that star formation in the giant H II region NGC 5471 has been ongoing during the past 100 Myr. Using Hubble Space Telescope/Wide-Field Planetary Camera 2 F547M and F675W, ground-based JHK{sub s} , and GALEX FUV and NUV images, we have conducted a photometric study of the star formation history (SFH) in the massive giant extragalactic H II region NGC 5471 in M101. We perform a photometric study of the color-magnitude diagram (CMD) of the resolved stars and an integrated analysis of the main individual star-forming clusters and of NGC 5471 as a whole. The integrated UV-optical-NIR photometry for the whole region provides two different reference ages, 8 Myr and 60 Myr, revealing a complex SFH, clearly confirmed by the CMD-resolved stellar photometry analysis. The spatial distribution of the stars shows that the star formation in NGC 5471 has proceeded along the whole region during, at least, the last 100 Myr. The current ionizing clusters are enclosed within a large bubble, which is likely to have been produced by the stars that formed in a major event {approx}20 Myr ago.

• OSTI ID: 21583169
• Journal Information: Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online), Journal Name: Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online) Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 141; ISSN 1538-3881
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
CAMERAS
COLOR
DIAGRAMS
DISTRIBUTION
GALAXIES
HERTZSPRUNG-RUSSELL DIAGRAM
IMAGES
INFORMATION
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
ORGANOLEPTIC PROPERTIES
PHOTOMETRY
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION
STAR CLUSTERS
STARS
TELESCOPES