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Description
We characterize the star formation in the low-metallicity galaxy NGC 6822 over the past few hundred million years, using GALEX far-UV (FUV, 1344-1786{AA}) and near-UV (NUV, 1771-2831{AA}) imaging, and ground-based H{alpha} imaging. From the GALEX FUV image, we define 77 star-forming (SF) regions with area >860pc^2^, and surface brightness <~26.8 mag (AB) arcsec^-2^, within 0.2{deg} (1.7kpc) of the center of the galaxy. We estimate the extinction by interstellar dust in each SF region from resolved photometry of the hot stars it contains: E(B-V) ranges from the minimum foreground value of 0.22mag up to 0.66+/-0.21mag. The integrated FUV and NUV photometry, compared with stellar population models, yields ages of the SF complexes up to a few hundred Myr, and masses from 2x10^2^M_{sun}_ to 1.5x10^6^M_{sun}_. The derived ages and masses strongly depend on the assumed type of interstellar selective extinction, which we find to vary across the galaxy. The total mass of the FUV-defined SF regions translates into an average star formation rate (SFR) of 1.4x10^-2^M_{sun}_/yr over the past 100Myr, and SFR=1.0x10^-2^M_{sun}_/yr in the most recent 10Myr. The latter is in agreement with the value that we derive from the H{alpha} luminosity, SFR=0.008M_{sun}_/yr. The SFR in the most recent epoch becomes higher if we add the SFR=0.02M_{sun}_/yr inferred from far-IR measurements, which trace star formation still embedded in dust (age <~ a few Myr).
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