Bibcode
Beaulieu, Sylvie F.; Freeman, Kenneth C.; Hidalgo, S. L.; Norman, Colin A.; Quinn, Peter J.
Bibliographical reference
The Astronomical Journal, Volume 139, Issue 3, pp. 984-993 (2010).
Advertised on:
3
2010
Citations
6
Refereed citations
6
Description
We present Hubble Space Telescope photometry of young stars in NGC 5102,
a nearby gas-rich post-starburst S0 galaxy with a bright young stellar
nucleus. We use the IAC-pop/MinnIAC algorithm to derive the recent star
formation history in three fields in the bulge and disk of NGC 5102. In
the disk fields, the recent star formation rate has declined
monotonically and is now barely detectable, but a starburst is still in
progress in the bulge and has added about 2% to the mass of the bulge
over the last 200 Myr. Other studies of star formation in NGC 5102
indicate that about 20% of its stellar mass was added over the past Gyr.
If this is correct, then much of the stellar mass of the bulge may have
formed over this period. It seems likely that this star formation was
fueled by the accretion of a gas-rich system with H I mass of about 2
× 109 M sun, which has now been almost
completely converted into stars. The large mass of recently formed stars
and the blue colors of the bulge suggest that the current starburst,
which is now fading, may have made a significant contribution to
building the bulge of NGC 5102.
Based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained
at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the
Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), Inc.,
under NASA Contract NAS 5-26555.
Related projects
Milky Way and Nearby Galaxies
The general aim of the project is to research the structure, evolutionary history and formation of galaxies through the study of their resolved stellar populations, both from photometry and spectroscopy. The group research concentrates in the most nearby objects, namely the Local Group galaxies including the Milky Way and M33 under the hypothesis
Martín
López Corredoira