We present a multi-wavelength photometric study of \sim 15,000 resolved stars in the nearby spiral galaxy M83 ( NGC 5236 , D = 4.61 Mpc ) based on Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 observations using four filters : F336W , F438W , F555W , and F814W .
We select 50 regions ( an average size of 260 pc by 280 pc ) in the spiral arm and inter-arm areas of M83 , and determine the age distribution of the luminous stellar populations in each region .
This is accomplished by correcting for extinction towards each individual star by comparing its colors with predictions from stellar isochrones .
We compare the resulting luminosity weighted mean ages of the luminous stars in the 50 regions with those determined from several independent methods , including the number ratio of red-to-blue supergiants , morphological appearance of the regions , surface brightness fluctuations , and the ages of clusters in the regions .
We find reasonably good agreement between these methods .
We also find that young stars are much more likely to be found in concentrated aggregates along spiral arms , while older stars are more dispersed .
These results are consistent with the scenario that star formation is associated with the spiral arms , and stars form primarily in star clusters and then disperse on short timescales to form the field population .
The locations of Wolf-Rayet stars are found to correlate with the positions of many of the youngest regions , providing additional support for our ability to accurately estimate ages .
We address the effects of spatial resolution on the measured colors , magnitudes , and age estimates .
While individual stars can occasionally show measurable differences in the colors and magnitudes , the age estimates for entire regions are only slightly affected .