Old stellar populations in star-forming dwarf galaxies

We present deep VLT/FORS1 observations of the two distant, isolated Local Group dwarfs Phoenix and Antlia. Our results provide further evidence for the presence of old stars in these star-forming dwarf galaxies. Old stellar populations are known in all of the Local Group dwarf spheroidal galaxies and in some dwarf irregulars, implying that dwarf galaxies started forming stars at a sharply defined early epoch irrespective of their subsequent star formation histories (e.g., Held et al., 2000; Saviane et al., 2000; and references therein).The new color-magnitude diagrams of Phoenix confirm the presence of a spatially extended blue HB population, indicating a conspicuous old component (Held et al., 1999;Martínez-Delgado et al., 1999). A preliminary analysis of stellar variability has led to the discovery of several tens RR Lyrae variables, which can provide clue information on the earliest star formation episode (see, e.g., Siegel and Majewski, 2000). The young main sequence extends down to the limit of our photometry (V=25.5 mag), which suggests that Phoenix underwent nearly continuous star formation in the last 2 Gyr. Our deep color-magnitude diagrams of Antlia have been used to investigate the gradient in the stellar populations of this dwarf irregular/spheroidal galaxy. While the young stars appear to be concentrated in a round central region(Aparicio et al. 1997; Sarajedini et al. 1997), the spatial distribution of the red giant stars defines an extended flattened halo (or disk) 2-3 kpc across.