Characterizing star formation in the innermost kiloparsec of the galaxy NGC 1386

Abstract

Abstract We characterize the star formation going on in the inner kiloparsec region of the galaxy NGC 1386 as derived from the analysis of a multiwavelength dataset covering the optical, near-IR and mid-IR at subarsec resolution. We detect 61 point sources, distributed in a ring of 960 pc radius around the center of the galaxy. From SED fitting we conclude that these are low mass () young clusters, with age distributed from 1 to 10 Myr, with median at 3.6 Myr. Comparison of the Hα luminosity of the clusters derived from the Hα+[N ii] narrow band image with that expected from the fitted ionizing continuum shows that a large fraction of the ionizing photons escapes from the clusters. Moreover, a large fraction of these photons escapes from the regions around the star forming ring.