Star formation histories of resolved galaxies

Monica Tosi

Published 2009-01-08, updated 2009-01-10Version 2

The colour-magnitude diagrams of resolved stellar populations are the best tool to study the star formation histories of the host galactic regions. In this review the method to derive star formation histories by means of synthetic colour-magnitude diagrams is briefly outlined, and the results of its application to resolved galaxies of various morphological types are summarized. It is shown that all the galaxies studied so far were already forming stars at the lookback time reached by the observational data, independently of morphological type and metallicity. Early-type galaxies have formed stars predominantly, but in several cases not exclusively, at the earliest epochs. All the other galaxies appear to have experienced rather continuous star formation activities throughout their lifetimes, although with significant rate variations and, sometimes, short quiescent phases.