Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Jul 2004
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004hst..prop10242c&link_type=abstract
HST Proposal ID #10242
Mathematics
Logic
Hst Proposal Id #10242 Stellar Populations
Scientific paper
The peculiar Local Group dwarf galaxy IC 10 is the nearest case of a starburst in progress. Starburst galaxies are a prime laboratory for studying the physical processes which regulate star formation in galaxies; as the closest example, IC 10 is potentially the key galaxy for understanding the starburst phenomenon. We propose to obtain deep optical images of IC 10 with the ACS/WFC to achieve three main goals: 1} To make the first estimates of the pre-burst history of IC 10 based on morphological and statistical analysis of its {V, I} color-magnitude diagram; 2} to search for evidence of a past history of burst-dormancy cycles; and 3} to explore the connection between the ages and locations of bright stars and the large-scale structure of the interstellar medium. The distance {0.8 Mpc}, extinction {2.5 mag}, and high surface brightness of IC 10 make these goals unobtainable except with HST. The observations proposed here will yield far and away the deepest images, in absolute magnitudes, ever obtained for any starburst galaxy. Our photometry will reach to magnitudes {V, I} = {28.5, 27.5}, which is below the level of the red clump/horizontal branch and the location of the main-sequence turnoff of stars as old as a billion years. For the first time, it will be possible to measure the detailed history of a starburst host for the Gigayear time period leading up to the burst. The horizontal branch morphology and colors will provide new information on the metallicity and age distribution of stars spanning the entire age of IC 10. Because of its close distance, IC 10 is the ONLY starburst galaxy for which this type of information is obtainable now or in the next decade. We propose to use WFPC2 in parallel to search for a low-surface brightness population associated with the neutral gas filaments surrounding IC 10.
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