Star formation in 30 Doradus
  Using observations obtained with the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on board the
Hubble Space Telescope (HST), we have studied the properties of the stellar
populations in the central regions of 30 Dor, in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
The observations clearly reveal the presence of considerable differential
extinction across the field. We characterise and quantify this effect using
young massive main sequence stars to derive a statistical reddening correction
for most objects in the field. We then search for pre-main sequence (PMS) stars
by looking for objects with a strong (> 4 sigma) Halpha excess emission and
find about 1150 of them over the entire field. Comparison of their location in
the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram with theoretical PMS evolutionary tracks for
the appropriate metallicity reveals that about one third of these objects are
younger than ~4Myr, compatible with the age of the massive stars in the central
ionising cluster R136, whereas the rest have ages up to ~30Myr, with a median
age of ~12Myr. This indicates that star formation has proceeded over an
extended period of time, although we cannot discriminate between an extended
episode and a series of short and frequent bursts that are not resolved in
time. While the younger PMS population preferentially occupies the central
regions of the cluster, older PMS objects are more uniformly distributed across
the field and are remarkably few at the very centre of the cluster. We
attribute this latter effect to photoevaporation of the older circumstellar
discs caused by the massive ionising members of R136.
