Thursday, February 25, 3:30 p.m.
2015 McPherson Laboratory
How To Trace Star Formation in External Galaxies
Daniela Calzetti
University of Massachusetts
With the beginning of operations of the Herschel Space Telescope, many
deep galaxy surveys will return exquisite images of their infrared
emission at different redshifts. It is therefore becoming more urgent to
calibrate monochromatic (single-band) SFR indicators across the
electromagnetic spectrum, as opposed to calorimetric (SED-integrated)
SFR indicators.
I will review recent progress enabled by the Spitzer Space Telescope
and by GALEX. The synergy between the two missions has highlighted
the strengths and limitations of each monochromatic SFR indicator.
SFR indicators ultimately rely on assumptions on the stellar Initial
Mass Function, and I will discuss the current status of our
knowledge (or lack thereof).
Finally, I will present some very preliminary results from one of
the Herschel Key Projects: KINGFISH (Key Insights on Nearby Galaxies:
a Far Infrared Survey with Herschel).