Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Origin Of The Diffuse, Far Ultraviolet Emission In The Interarm Regions Of M101., Alison F. Crocker, Rupali Chandar, Daniela Calzetti, Benne W. Holwerda, Claus Leitherer, Cristina C. Popescu, R. J. Tuffs

Faculty Scholarship

We present images from the Solar Blind Channel on the Hubble Space Telescope that resolve hundreds of farultraviolet (FUV) emitting stars in two ∼1 kpc2 interarm regions of the grand-design spiral M101. The luminosity functions of these stars are compared with predicted distributions from simple star formation histories, and are best reproduced when the star formation rate has recently declined (past 10–50 Myr). This pattern is consistent with stars forming within spiral arms and then streaming into the interarm regions. We measure the diffuse FUV surface brightness after subtracting all of the detected stars, clusters, and background galaxies. A residual …