Stars outside galaxies, Duilia de Mello (CUA/GSFC)

I will summarize the latest results of our search for star formation in the intergalactic medium, in particular, in the vicinity of interacting galaxies. Our method combines GALEX ultraviolet satellite images together with HI maps of interacting galaxies and mergers. We search for young star forming regions within the HI tail in the UV and do follow-up observations (CTIO, Gemini, VATT, WIYN) to establish their physical properties (ages, masses, metallicities). I will report the discovery of several of these objects and show that depending on the environment they might belong to different families such as (i) stellar associations, (ii) young globular clusters or (iii) dwarf galaxies. The fate of these objects is still debatable and they might play an important role in polluting the intergalactic medium at high redshifts.