Star Formation History of the 3D Small Magellanic Cloud

Abstract

Stars retain information on the conditions of their host galaxies at the time and place of birth, and thus, serve as fossil records of past events. Analysing the stellar populations of nearby galaxies, in which individual stars can be resolved, can then provide us with clues on the mechanisms involved in the formation and evolution of such systems. Studying their star formation histories (SFHs), regarded as the rate of star formation and chemical enrichment as a function of time bestows us with a precious link between the light we observe now and their past and present physical properties. Within this context, the closest irregular satellites to our Milky Way, the Magellanic Clouds (MCs), constitute excellent laboratories for these endeavours. In this talk, I will present a detailed analysis of the MCs SFHs using state-of-the-art algorithms to fit colour-magnitude diagrams (CMDs). The technique I describe here consists of comparing the observed and modelled CMDs, using a code that utilizes updated minimisation algorithms allowing the recovery of SFH and age distributions to an unrivalled level of detail up to date. I will discuss my findings, arguing that they contribute to ‘winding back the clock’ of the MCs, reaching as far back as 13+ billion years ago and, hence, giving us a pick of the early stages of formation and evolution of these galaxies.