UV/Optical/IR Color Sequences Along the Tidal Ring/Arm of Arp 107

Abstract

We construct UV/optical/IR spectral energy distributions for 29 star forming regions in the interacting galaxy Arp 107, using GALEX UV, Sloan Digitized Sky Survey optical, and Spitzer infrared images. In an earlier study utilizing only the Spitzer data, we found a sequence in the mid-infrared colors of star-forming knots along the strong tidal arm in this system. In the current study, we find sequences in the UV/optical colors along the tidal arm that mirror those in the mid-infrared, with blue UV/optical colors found for regions that are red in the mid-infrared, and vice versa. With single-burst stellar population synthesis models, we find a sequence in the average stellar age along this arm, with younger stars preferentially located further out in the arm. Models that allow two populations of different ages and dust attenuations suggest that there may be both a young component and an older population present in these regions. Thus the observed color sequences may be better interpreted as a sequence in the relative proportion of young and old stars along the arm, with a larger fraction of young stars near the end. Comparison with star forming regions in other interacting galaxies shows that the Arp 107 regions are relatively quiescent, with less intense star formation than in many other systems.