Speaker  Wu Yanling (Cornell University)
Time: 14:00, July 22

Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxies (BCDs) are galaxies that are characterized by their blue optical colors, low luminosities and small sizes. BCDs are found to typically have have low, subsolar, metallicities and proposed to be used as local laboratory to study the star formation in the early univesre. The unprecendented sensitivity of the Spitzer Space Telescope has enabled us for the first time to detect a large sample of these low luminosity systems, proving the presence/absence of the Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon features. In addition, using the high-resolution spectroscopy, we study the elemental abundances of neon and sulfur in BCDs and compare with the results from optical studies. Finally, we also analyse the FIR/radio correlation in low luminosity galaxies and expand the discussion to the mid-IR.