Holmberg IX: A Unique, Infant but Inactive Galaxy as Revealed via a Multiwavelength Approach

TL;DR

Holmberg IX is a unique, recently formed, inactive galaxy with unusual properties, challenging typical tidal dwarf galaxy models and suggesting possible future evolution into a dwarf spheroidal or diffuse system.

Contribution

This study provides the first multiwavelength analysis revealing Holmberg IX's atypical characteristics and its potential evolutionary pathways, contrasting with known tidal dwarf galaxies.

Findings

Holmberg IX has a dearth of dust despite rich gas and metals.

It experienced a burst of star formation about 130 Myr ago that rapidly ceased.

Current star formation is limited to the outskirts, with implications for its future evolution.

Abstract

In this Letter, we report a novel discovery of unique characteristics for the tidal dwarf galaxy (candidate) Holmberg IX via a multiwavelength investigation. New observations are taken for deeply mapping H{\alpha} emission and combined with archival/published data for comprehensively probing dust, gas, and stellar populations in this galaxy. We find in Holmberg IX a dearth of dust incompatible with its rich gas and metal; globally young stellar populations with prominent far-ultraviolet but deficient and marginal H{\alpha} emissions, distinct from other tidal dwarf galaxies ever known. By assuming a normal initial mass function (IMF), Holmberg IX is suggested to be born ~130 Myr ago from a bursty star formation event, which then rapidly ceased, with very few stars formed in the past ~80 Myr that demarcates a lower age limit for the galactic mainbody; current star formation occurs only in outskirts, bringing a conundrum about the reason for the recent quenching in such a gas-rich environment. Contradicting the general expectation for tidal dwarf galaxies hosting continuous star formation, the present quiescence implies Holmberg IX currently staying in a rarely-seen transient period. Without star formation continuing, Holmberg IX is likely transforming into a dwarf spheroidal galaxy, or oppositely into a(n) (ultra-)diffuse system which will probably dissolve in the end. Instead, if Holmberg IX possesses peculiar IMF and hosts low-mass, weak-H{\alpha} star formation, it is able to maintain long-term survival in its current status. On whichever evolutionary pathway in reality, Holmberg IX appears as a special case updating conventional understandings of tidal dwarf galaxies and hinting potential existence of similar analogs in the Universe.