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The Star Formation History of the Magellanic Clouds: An Observer’s Perspective

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Lessons from the Local Group

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Abstract

The nearby Magellanic Clouds are ideal laboratories for the study of galaxy formation and evolution. In particular, their field star formation history can be obtained in the greatest possible detail, from color-magnitude diagrams reaching the oldest main sequence turnoff. In this paper, we discuss the challenges involved in the determination of full, quantitative star formation histories for the Magellanic Clouds field stellar population, and our current knowledge of them. We show that both the LMC and the SMC have experienced an almost coincident enhancement of their central star formation activity in the second part of their lifetimes, and that both show an outside-in quenching of the recent star formation.

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Acknowledgement

We wish to thank a number of collaborators that have contributed to this project, or are taking part on ongoing work on the MCs not presented here: A. Aparicio, S. L. Hidalgo, I. Meschin, N. Noël and D. Nidever and rest of members of the SMASH collaboration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, E-38200, La Laguna, Spain

    C. Gallart, M. Monelli, L. Monteagudo-Narvión & R. Carrera

  2. Dpto. Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna, E-38206, Tenerife, La Laguna, Spain

    C. Gallart

  3. Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, V9E2E7, BC, Victoria, Canada

    P. B. Stetson

Authors
  1. C. Gallart
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  2. M. Monelli
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  3. L. Monteagudo-Narvión
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  4. R. Carrera
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  5. P. B. Stetson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to C. Gallart .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

    Kenneth Freeman

  2. IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York, USA

    Bruce Elmegreen

  3. University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    David Block

  4. University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Matthew Woolway

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© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Gallart, C., Monelli, M., Monteagudo-Narvión, L., Carrera, R., Stetson, P. (2015). The Star Formation History of the Magellanic Clouds: An Observer’s Perspective. In: Freeman, K., Elmegreen, B., Block, D., Woolway, M. (eds) Lessons from the Local Group. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10614-4_22

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