TY - JOUR A2 - Hopp, Ulrich AU - Cignoni, Michele AU - Tosi, Monica PY - 2010 DA - 2009/11/19 TI - Star Formation Histories of Dwarf Galaxies from the Colour-Magnitude Diagrams of Their Resolved Stellar Populations SP - 158568 VL - 2010 AB - In this tutorial paper we summarize how the star formation (SF) history of a galactic regioncan be derived from the colour-magnitude diagram (CMD) of its resolved stars. The procedures tobuild synthetic CMDs and to exploit them to derive the SF histories (SFHs) are described, as wellas the corresponding uncertainties. The SFHs of resolved dwarf galaxies of all morphological types,obtained from the application of the synthetic CMD method, are reviewed and discussed. To summarize:(1) only early-type galaxies show evidence of long interruptions in the SF activity; late-type dwarfspresent rather continuous, or gasping, SF regimes; (2) a few early-type dwarfs have experienced onlyone episode of SF activity concentrated at the earliest epochs, whilst many others show extendedor recurrent SF activity; (3) no galaxy experiencing now its first SF episode has been found yet; (4)no frequent evidence of strong SF bursts is found; (5) there is no significant difference in the SFHof dwarf irregulars and blue compact dwarfs, except for the current SF rates. Implications of theseresults on the galaxy formation scenarios are briefly discussed. SN - 1687-7969 UR - https://doi.org/10.1155/2010/158568 DO - 10.1155/2010/158568 JF - Advances in Astronomy PB - Hindawi Publishing Corporation KW - ER -