The Recent Star Formation History of NGC 5102

TL;DR

This study uses Hubble data to analyze the recent star formation history of NGC 5102, revealing a declining star formation in the disk and a recent starburst in the bulge that contributed significantly to its stellar mass.

Contribution

It provides a detailed recent star formation history of NGC 5102, highlighting the impact of a gas-rich accretion event on bulge growth.

Findings

Star formation in the disk has nearly ceased.

A recent starburst added about 2% to the bulge mass.

Approximately 20% of stellar mass formed in the last Gyr.

Abstract

We present Hubble Space Telescope photometry of young stars in NGC 5102, a nearby gas-rich post-starburst S0 galaxy with a bright young stellar nucleus. We use the IAC-pop/MinnIAC algorithm to derive the recent star formation history in three fields in the bulge and disk of NGC 5102. In the disk fields, the recent star formation rate has declined monotonically and is now barely detectable, but a starburst is still in progress in the bulge and has added about 2 percent to the mass of the bulge over the last 200 Myr. Other studies of star formation in NGC 5102 indicate that about 20 percent of its stellar mass was added over the past Gyr. If this is correct, then much of the stellar mass of the bulge may have formed over this period. It seems likely that this star formation was fueled by the accretion of a gas-rich system with HI mass of about 2 x 10^9 Msol which has now been almost completely converted into stars. The large mass of recently formed stars and the blue colours of the bulge suggest that the current starburst, which is now fading, may have made a significant contribution to build the bulge of NGC 5102.