HST imaging of star-forming clumps in 6 GASP ram-pressure stripped galaxies

TL;DR

This study uses Hubble Space Telescope imaging to analyze star-forming clumps in six galaxies undergoing ram-pressure stripping, revealing turbulence-driven, scale-free star formation with enhanced luminosity due to environmental effects.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of star-forming clumps in ram-pressure stripped galaxies, highlighting the impact of environment on star formation properties.

Findings

Clumps are mostly unresolved, smaller than 140 pc.

Star formation appears turbulence-driven and scale-free.

Ram pressure enhances clump luminosity, making it similar to starburst galaxies.

Abstract

Exploiting broad- and narrow-band images of the Hubble Space Telescope from the near-UV to I-band rest frame, we study the star-forming clumps of six galaxies of the GASP sample undergoing strong ram pressure stripping. Clumps are detected in H alpha and near-UV, tracing star formation on different timescales. We consider clumps located in galaxy disks and stripped tails and formed in stripped gas but still close to the disk, called extraplanar. We detect 2406 H alpha-selected clumps (1708 in disks, 375 in extraplanar regions, and 323 in tails) and 3745 UV-selected clumps (2021 disk, 825 extraplanar, and 899 tail clumps). Only 15 per cent of star-forming clumps are spatially resolved, meaning that most are smaller than 140 pc. We study the luminosity and size distribution functions (LDFs and SDFs, respectively) and the luminosity-size relation. The average LDF slope is 1.79 +/- 0.09, while the average SDF slope is 3.1 +/- 0.5. The results suggest that the star formation is turbulence-driven and scale-free, as in main-sequence alaxies. All of the clumps, whether they are in the disks or tails, have an enhanced H alpha luminosity at a given size, compared to the clumps in main-sequence galaxies. Indeed, their H alpha luminosity is closer to that of clumps in starburst galaxies, indicating that ram pressure is able to enhance the luminosity. No striking differences are found among disk and tail clumps, suggesting that the different environments in which they are embedded play a minor role in influencing the star formation.