Understanding star formation and feedback in small galaxies. The case of the blue compact dwarf Mrk 900

Abstract: (Abridged) Low-luminosity, active star-forming blue compact galaxies (BCGs) are excellent laboratories for investigating the process of star formation on galactic scales and probing the interplay between massive stars and the surrounding interstellar (or intergalactic) medium. We investigated the morphology, structure, and stellar content of the Blue Compact Galaxy Mrk 900, combining optical integral field observations obtained with VIMOS at the VLT and deep broad-band photometry taken at the 2.5 m NOT telescope. From the integral field data, we built continuum, emission, and diagnostic line ratio maps and produced velocity and velocity dispersion maps. We also generated the integrated spectrum of the major HII regions and the nuclear area to determine reliable physical parameters and oxygen abundances. The broad-band data, tracing the galaxy up to radius 4 kpc, allowed us to investigate the properties of the low surface brightness underlying stellar host. We disentangle two different stellar components in Mrk 900: a young population, which resolves into individual stellar clusters with ages ~5.5-6.6 Myr and extends about 1 kpc along the galaxy minor axis, is placed on top of a rather red and regular shaped underlying stellar host, several Gyr old. We find evidence of a substantial amount of dust and an inhomogeneous extinction pattern, with a dust lane crossing the central starburst. Mrk 900 displays overall rotation, although distorted in the central, starburst regions; the dispersion velocity map is highly inhomogeneous, with values increasing up to 60 kms$^{-1}$ at the periphery of the SF regions, where we also find hints of the presence of shocks. Our observational results point to an interaction or merger with a low-mass object or infalling gas as plausible trigger mechanisms for the present starburst event.