A Study of the Star-forming Dwarf Galaxy NGC 855 with Spitzer

We present a study of the dwarf elliptical galaxy NGC 855 using the narrow-band Hα and Spitzer data. Both the Hα and Spitzer IRAC images confirm star-forming activity in the center of NGC 855. We obtained a star formation rate (SFR) of 0.022 and 0.025M_odot yr^-1, respectively, from the Spitzer IRAC 8.0 μm and MIPS 24 μm emission data. The HI observation suggests that the star-forming activity might be triggered by a minor merger. We also find that there is a distinct IR emission region in 5.8 and 8.0 μm bands, located at about 10'' away from the nucleus of NGC 855. Given the strong 8.0 μm but faint Hα emission, we expect that it is a heavily obscured star-forming region, which needs to be confirmed by further optical spectroscopic observations.