Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Evolution Of Stellar Structures In Dwarf Galaxies, N. Bastian, D. R. Weisz, E. D. Skillman, K. B.W. Mc Quinn, A E. Dolphin, R. A. Gutermuth

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

We present a study of the variation of spatial structure of stellar populations within dwarf galaxies as a function of the population age. We use deep Hubble Space Telescope/Advanced Camera for Surveys imaging of nearby dwarf galaxies in order to resolve individual stars and create composite colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) for each galaxy. Using the obtained CMDs, we select Blue Helium Burning stars (BHeBs), which can be unambiguously age-dated by comparing the absolute magnitude of individual stars with stellar isochrones. Additionally, we select a very young (<10 >Myr) population of OB stars for a subset of the galaxies based on the …