Star-Forming Galaxies in the Near-Infrared

 

Lucimara Martins (NAT/Unicsul)

 

 

The near-infrared spectral region is becoming a very useful wavelength range to detect and quantify the stellar population of galaxies. Models are developing to predict the contribution of TP-AGB stars, that should dominate the NIR spectra of populations 0.3 to 2 Gyr old. When present in a given stellar population, these stars leave unique signatures that can be used to detect them unambiguously. However, these models have to be tested in a homogeneous database of star-forming galaxies, to check if the results are consistent with what is found from different wavelength ranges. With this in mind we obtained the NIR spectra of a sample of 23 star-forming galaxies. I will present the study of these spectra, showing main tracers of stellar populations found, as well as the results of their spectral fitting.