The Star Formation & Chemical Evolution History of the Fornax Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy

Understand

We present deep photometry in the B,V and I filters from CTIO/MOSAIC for about 270.000 stars in the Fornax dwarf Spheroidal galaxy, out to a radius of r_ell\sim0.8 degrees.

• By combining the accurately calibrated photometry with the spectroscopic metallicity distributions of individual Red Giant Branch stars we obtain the detailed star formation and chemical evolution history of Fornax.
• Fornax is dominated by intermediate age (1-10 Gyr) stellar populations, but also includes ancient (10-14 Gyr), and young (<1 Gyr) stars.
• We show that Fornax displays a radial age gradient, with younger, more metal-rich populations dominating the central region.