Program: GN-2015A-Q-206

A central topic in modern astrophysics is the star formation history of early-type galaxies (ETGs). The overall aim of this proposal is to make a decisive contribution to our understanding of ETG evolution at late epochs, by using GEMINI-GMOS IFS (R150 grating+GG455 filter over the wavelength range ~5000-8000A) to comprehensively study the young stellar populations in ETGs, identify the processes that drive this recent star formation in terms of metallicity, study the properties of the gas that fuels the star formation and explore the impact of these processes on the dynamical and kinematic structures. The target list comprises 4 star-forming early-type galaxies focusing on star-forming regions constrained from our recent GALEX-SAURON work and the total request to observe them is 10 hours. The combined Gemini-GMOS IFS data and GALEX UV observations will provide by far the best measurement to constrain the ETG evolution at late epochs, and they will give us a privileged glimpse into the future of those objects.