TY - JOUR
T1 - The nature of starbursts. III. the spatial distribution of star formation
AU - Mcquinn, Kristen B.W.
AU - Skillman, Evan D.
AU - Dalcanton, Julianne J.
AU - Cannon, John M.
AU - Dolphin, Andrew E.
AU - Holtzman, Jon
AU - Weisz, Daniel R.
AU - Williams, Benjamin F.
PY - 2012/11/1
Y1 - 2012/11/1
N2 - We map the spatial distribution of recent star formation over a few × 100Myr timescales in 15 starburst dwarf galaxies using the location of young blue helium burning stars identified from optically resolved stellar populations in archival Hubble Space Telescope observations. By comparing the star formation histories from both the high surface brightness central regions and the diffuse outer regions, we measure the degree to which the star formation has been centrally concentrated during the galaxies' starbursts, using three different metrics for the spatial concentration. We find that the galaxies span a full range in spatial concentration, from highly centralized to broadly distributed star formation. Since most starbursts have historically been identified by relatively short timescale star formation tracers (e.g., Hα emission), there could be a strong bias toward classifying only those galaxies with recent, centralized star formation as starbursts, while missing starbursts that are spatially distributed.
AB - We map the spatial distribution of recent star formation over a few × 100Myr timescales in 15 starburst dwarf galaxies using the location of young blue helium burning stars identified from optically resolved stellar populations in archival Hubble Space Telescope observations. By comparing the star formation histories from both the high surface brightness central regions and the diffuse outer regions, we measure the degree to which the star formation has been centrally concentrated during the galaxies' starbursts, using three different metrics for the spatial concentration. We find that the galaxies span a full range in spatial concentration, from highly centralized to broadly distributed star formation. Since most starbursts have historically been identified by relatively short timescale star formation tracers (e.g., Hα emission), there could be a strong bias toward classifying only those galaxies with recent, centralized star formation as starbursts, while missing starbursts that are spatially distributed.
KW - galaxies: dwarf
KW - galaxies: evolution
KW - galaxies: starburst
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U2 - 10.1088/0004-637X/759/1/77
DO - 10.1088/0004-637X/759/1/77
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84868113523
VL - 759
JO - Astrophysical Journal
JF - Astrophysical Journal
SN - 0004-637X
IS - 1
M1 - 77
ER -