Name: Claudia Mendes de Oliveira

Institution: IAG/USP

e-mail: oliveira(no-spam)astro.iag.usp.br

Partner Contry: BRA

Science Meeting: Yes

User Meeting: Yes

NGO Staff Meeting: No

Presentation: Yes

Format: Poster

Title: Star-forming regions in the intragroup medium of compact groups of galaxies

Co-author: Claudia Mendes de Oliveira Sergio Torres Eduardo Cypriano Duilia de Mello Laerte Sodre Jr. Chantal Balkowski

Co-authors' Institutions: (1) and (2) IAG/USP, Brazil (3) University College London, England (4) NASA/CUA Goddard Space Flight Center (5) IAG/USP, Brazil (6) Observatoire de Paris/Meudon, France

Abstract:

We have an ongoing observational program at Gemini GMOS to search for star-forming regions in the intragroup medium (IGM) of compact groups which contain HI gas in tails or debris due to galaxy-galaxy interactions. Here we present the results of Gemini GMOS imaging and spectroscopy, GALEX, CTIO, and VLA HI data of several compact groups. We find a number of intragroup star-forming regions: they are blue in colors, small in sizes and young in ages. Our multiwavelength data reveal that the IGM is an active environment suggesting that these processes may have been important in polluting the IGM with metals in the early universe, when interactions were very common.