The integrated properties of nuclear rings are correlated with their host galaxy ’ s secular evolution and its dynamics , as well as with the formation and evolution of the ring ’ s star cluster population ( s ) .
Here we present a new method to accurately measure the spectral energy distribution and current star-formation rate ( SFR ) of the nuclear ring in the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1512 based on high-resolution Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescope images .
Image degradation does not have a significant negative effect on the robustness of the results .
To obtain the ring ’ s SFR for the period spanning \sim 3–10 Myr , we apply our method to the continuum-subtracted H \alpha and 8 \mu m images .
The resulting SFR surface density , \Sigma _ { SFR } = 0.09 { M } _ { \odot } { yr } ^ { -1 } { kpc } ^ { -2 } , which is much higher than the disk-averaged SFR densities in normal galaxies .
We also estimate the ring ’ s total stellar mass , log ( { M } / { M } _ { \odot } ) = 7.1 \pm 0.11 for an average age of \sim 40 Myr .