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The star formation history of the Fornax dSph galaxy using the new synthetic color–magnitude diagram code IAC-STAR

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 November 2005

Carme Gallart ,
Antonio Aparicio ,
R. Zinn ,
R. Buonanno ,
E. Hardy  and
G. Marconi
Carme Gallart
Affiliation:
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, 38200 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain email: carme@iac.es, antapaj@iac.es
Antonio Aparicio
Affiliation:
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, 38200 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain email: carme@iac.es, antapaj@iac.es
R. Zinn
Affiliation:
Dep. of Astronomy, Yale University, P.O. Box 208101, New Haven, CT 06520-8101, USA, email: zinn@astro.yale.edu
R. Buonanno
Affiliation:
Università di Roma Tor Vergata, via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome, Italy, email: buonanno@mporzio.astro.it
E. Hardy
Affiliation:
NRAO, Santiago de Chile, email: ehardy@nrao.edu
G. Marconi
Affiliation:
ESO, Alonso de Cordova 3107, Vitacura, Santiago de Chile, email: gmarconi@eso.org
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Abstract

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We present VLT-FORS1 color–magnitude diagrams (CMDs) reaching the oldest main-sequence turnoffs for three fields at two galactocentric distances in the Fornax dSph galaxy. We derive the star formation history (SFH) for each field through comparison with synthetic CMDs and show that the main epoch of star formation has extended to more recent epochs toward the center of the galaxy. A small burst of star formation about 2 Gyr ago is a robust feature in the SFH of all fields. It might be related to the shell structure found in Fornax by Coleman et al. (2004), which in turn has been interpreted as the relic of a merger event that occurred in Fornax about 2 Gyr ago.

Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 1 , Colloquium C198: Near-Field Cosmology with Dwarf Elliptical Galaxies , March 2005 , pp. 25 - 29
Copyright
© 2005 International Astronomical Union