A MegaCam Survey of Outer Halo Satellites. VI: The Spatially Resolved Star Formation History of the Carina Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy

TL;DR

This study provides a detailed, spatially resolved star formation history of the Carina dwarf galaxy, revealing two main star formation episodes and suggesting evolution independent of Milky Way tidal influences.

Contribution

First to combine deep, wide-field imaging with metallicity data to accurately trace Carina's star formation history and spatial variations.

Findings

Carina's star formation occurred in two main episodes separated by a gap.

Old stars constitute about 54% of the stellar mass within 1.3 times the tidal radius.

No recent star formation detected; blue plume likely due to blue stragglers.

Abstract

We present the spatially resolved star formation history (SFH) of the Carina dwarf spheroidal galaxy, obtained from deep, wide-field g,r imaging and a metallicity distribution from the literature. Our photometry covers $\sim2$ deg$^2$, reaching up to $\sim10$ times the half-light radius of Carina with a completeness higher than $50\%$ at $g\sim24.5$, more than one magnitude fainter than the oldest turnoff. This is the first time a combination of depth and coverage of this quality has been used to derive the SFH of Carina, enabling us to trace its different populations with unprecedented accuracy. We find that Carina's SFH consists of two episodes well separated by a star formation temporal gap. These episodes occurred at old ($>10$ Gyr) and intermediate ($2$-$8$ Gyr) ages. Our measurements show that the old episode comprises the majority of the population, accounting for $54\pm5\%$ of the stellar mass within $1.3$ times the King tidal radius, while the total stellar mass derived for Carina is $1.60\pm0.09\times 10^{6} M_{\rm{\odot}}$, and the stellar mass-to-light ratio $1.8\pm0.2$. The SFH derived is consistent with no recent star formation which hints that the observed blue plume is due to blue stragglers. We conclude that the SFH of Carina evolved independently of the tidal field of the Milky Way, since the frequency and duration of its star formation events do not correlate with its orbital parameters. This result is supported by the age/metallicity relation observed in Carina, and the gradients calculated indicating that outer regions are older and more metal poor.