Abstract details

In this work we develop a method for obtaining the star formation histories of a mixed, resolved population through the use of color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs). The method provides insight into the local star formation rate, analyzing the observations of the Hipparcos satellite through a comparison with synthetic CMDs computed for different histories with an updated stellar evolution library. Parallax and photometric uncertainties are included explicitly and corrected using the Bayesian Richardson-Lucy algorithm. The resulting local star formation rate has a temporal scale of about 6 Gyr, with a maximum activity close to 4 Gyr ago. The similarity of this finding with column integrated star formation rates may indicate a global origin and a collision with a satellite Galaxy is suspected.