Log-normal Star Formation Histories in Simulated and Observed Galaxies

Star Formation Histories in Early-type Galaxies

I discuss the formation of α-enhanced metal-rich stellar populations in the nuclei of luminous ellipticals. Based on hierarchical clustering , different galaxy formation scenarios, which imply different star formation histories, are considered. In contrast to the fast clumpy collapse mode, the late merger of two spiral galaxies fails to reproduce significantly α-enhanced abundance ratios, unles...

Star Formation Histories of Nearby Dwarf Galaxies

Properties of nearby dwarf galaxies are briefly discussed. Dwarf galaxies vary widely in their star formation histories, the ages of their subpopulations, and in their enrichment history. Furthermore, many dwarf galaxies show evidence for spatial variations in their star formation history; often in the form of very extended old populations and radial gradients in age and metallicity. Determinin...

Star formation histories of resolved galaxies

The colour-magnitude diagrams of resolved stellar populations are the best tool to study the star formation histories of the host galactic regions. In this review the method to derive star formation histories by means of synthetic colour-magnitude diagrams is briefly outlined, and the results of its application to resolved galaxies of various morphological types are summarized. It is shown that...

Star Formation in Normal Galaxies

Star Formation Histories within the Antennae Galaxies

With the imagery from GALEX, HST, 2MASS, and Spitzer, and at the resolution of MIPS 24 μm (∼ 6), we study the variations of the broadband spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of star-forming regions within the nearest prototypal major merger — the Antennae galaxies. By including MIPS 24μm dust emission into stellar population analysis, we reliably, albeit roughly, constrain the star formation h...