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Issue A&A
Volume 433, Number 3, April III 2005
Page(s) 797 - 806
Section Extragalactic astronomy
DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20041172



A&A 433, 797-806 (2005)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20041172

A new infrared view of evolved stars in IZw 18

G. Östlin1 and M. Mouhcine2, 3

1  Stockholm Observatory, AlbaNova University Center, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
    e-mail: ostlin@astro.su.se
2  School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
3  Observatoire Astronomique de Strasbourg (UMR 7550), 11 rue de l'Université, 67000 Strasbourg, France

(Received 28 April 2004 / Accepted 31 October 2004 )

Abstract
We report results from near-infrared imaging of IZw 18, the most metal-poor galaxy in the local universe, with NICMOS on board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Observations were obtained in the broad F205W filter (~K) and in the medium-wide bands F171M and F180M, the latter which cover strong molecular absorption features in cool stars. The new data, together with previously obtained HST/NICMOS images in the F110W (~J) and F160W (~H) filters, provide a census of the cool stellar population in this chemically unevolved galaxy. We find that stars as old as ~1 Gyr are required to explain the observed colour-magnitude diagrams. Combining broad and medium-wide band photometry, we have classified the observed stars. The observed stellar populations, to the depth of our data, are dominated by luminous red supergiant stars. However, an intermediate-age component is also present. We have identified carbon star candidates, and show that they dominate the stellar content for intermediate mass and age. We show that low metallicity intermediate-age stars have, for a given colour, a F110W (~J-band) excess compared to local carbon stars. The carbon stars identified in IZw 18 are the most distant (more than 10 Mpc) resolved examples yet discovered.


Key words: galaxies: dwarf -- galaxies: stellar content -- galaxies: individual: IZw18 -- stars: carbon -- stars: AGB and post-AGB

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© ESO 2005


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