Physics – Optics
Scientific paper
May 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009aas...21424005o&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #214, #240.05; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.743
Physics
Optics
Scientific paper
We discuss H and K observations of six fields in the bulge and disk of M31 obtained with the NIRI instrument and ALTAIR adaptive optics system on Gemini North. These are the some of the highest resolution near-infrared observations obtained to date of the extremely crowded high surface brightness regions of M31. In earlier work, we combined our observations with previously published Hubble Space Telescope NICMOS images and derived the coarse star formation histories of M31's bulge and inner disk. From fits to the MK luminosity functions of the bulge and innermost disk fields, we found the stellar population mix to be dominated by old, nearly solar metallicity stars independent of radius. New analysis of a field located near M31's 10 kpc ring of star formation reveals a very different star formation history. While an old, moderately metal-poor population contains the majority of the stellar mass, 30% of the mass lies in a solar metallicity, 200±100 Myr component, which we attribute to the burst that formed the ring itself. We will discuss additional observations, recently obtained, aimed at mapping the star formation burst around the azimuth of M31's 10 kpc ring.
Blum Robert David
Olsen Knut A. G.
Stephens Andrew W.
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