The Stellar Populations of Resolved Galaxies
Abstract
The study of galaxies outside the Milky Way using observations of resolved stellar populations has experienced extraordinary growth over the past two decades. There now exist panchromatic photometry and precise astrometry for hundreds of millions of individually resolved stars in hundreds of galaxies that span ∼109 in luminosity, ∼103 in metallicity, and sample a wide range of environments. Here, we review advances in extragalactic astronomy enabled by resolved stellar population imaging. We summarize major observational programs and focus on four interconnected science areas: the star formation histories of galaxies, 'bursty' star formation, the stellar initial mass function, and the orbital histories of Local Group galaxies. We review the literature in each area, synthesize key findings, identify emerging trends, and discuss how new and future facilities (e.g., JWST, LSST, Euclid, Roman, CSST, ELTs, HWO) will enable further progress. Finally, we highlight shortcomings in current datasets and discuss promising directions for new areas of investigation.
Related
- Mock CSST NUV-NIR imaging of TNG50 galaxies with resolved stellar populations
- The Stellar Populations of Two Quiescent Low Surface Brightness Dwarf Galaxies in Low Density Environments
- Investigating the Young Stellar Populations and Hierarchies in Nearby Galaxies with the UVIT. III. Evidence for a Largest Scale of Correlated Stellar Structures and a Non-universal Fractal Dimension
- Physically Motivated Stellar Populations for Galaxies at Cosmic Dawn with a Temperature-Dependent IMF
- Investigating the young stellar populations and hierarchies in nearby galaxies with the UVIT. II. Presenting the properties of ~25,000 UV-detected star-forming clumps
BibTeX
@misc{weisz2026stellar,
title = {{The Stellar Populations of Resolved Galaxies}},
author = {Daniel R. Weisz and Alessandro Savino and Evan D. Skillman},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.36040},
eprint = {2610.36040},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.36040},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - The Stellar Populations of Resolved Galaxies
AU - Daniel R. Weisz
AU - Alessandro Savino
AU - Evan D. Skillman
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/26
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.36040
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.36040
AB - The study of galaxies outside the Milky Way using observations of resolved stellar populations has experienced extraordinary growth over the past two decades. There now exist panchromatic photometry and precise astrometry for hundreds of millions of individually resolved stars in hundreds of galaxies that span ∼10^9 in luminosity, ∼10^3 in metallicity, and sample a wide range of environments. Here, we review advances in extragalactic astronomy enabled by resolved stellar population imaging. We summarize major observational programs and focus on four interconnected science areas: the star formation histories of galaxies, 'bursty' star formation, the stellar initial mass function, and the orbital histories of Local Group galaxies. We review the literature in each area, synthesize key findings, identify emerging trends, and discuss how new and future facilities (e.g., JWST, LSST, Euclid, Roman, CSST, ELTs, HWO) will enable further progress. Finally, we highlight shortcomings in current datasets and discuss promising directions for new areas of investigation.
ER -