THE STAR FORMATION HISTORY OF THE VERY METAL-POOR BLUE COMPACT DWARF I Zw 18 FROM HST/ACS DATA

We have derived the star formation history (SFH) of the blue compact dwarf galaxy I Zw 18 through comparison of deep HST/ACS data with synthetic color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs). A statistical analysis was implemented for the identification of the best-fit SFH and relative uncertainties. We confirm that I Zw 18 is not a truly young galaxy, having started forming stars earlier than similar to 1 Gyr ago, and possibly at epochs as old as a Hubble time. In I Zw 18's main body we infer a lower limit of approximate to 2 x 10(6) M-circle dot for the mass locked up in old stars. I Zw 18's main body has been forming stars very actively during the last similar to 10 Myr, with an average star formation rate (SFR) as high as approximate to 1 M-circle dot yr(-1) (or approximate to 2 x 10(-5) M-circle dot yr(-1) pc(-2)). On the other hand, the secondary body was much less active at these epochs, in agreement with the absence of significant nebular emission. The high current SFR can explain the very blue colors and the high ionized gas content in I Zw 18, resembling primeval galaxies in the early universe. Detailed chemical evolution models are required to quantitatively check whether the SFH from the synthetic CMDs can explain the low measured element abundances, or if galactic winds with loss of metals are needed.