A detailed two-dimensional stellar population study of M32

We present Integral Field Spectroscopy of the 9 ′′×12′ ′ circumnuclear region of M 32 obtained with the 2D FIS fibre spectrograph installed at the 4.2m William Herschel Telescope. From these spectra line strength maps have been made for about 20 absorption lines, mostly belonging to the Lick system. We have found good agreement with long-slit line strength profiles in the literature. We find no radial gradients in the azimuthally averaged absorption line indices. We have fitted the mean values of each spectral index and colours from the literature for the inner regions of M 32 to the models of Vazdekis et al. (1996) and Worthey (1994) finding present data can be well interpreted for a single stellar population of an intermediate age (∼4 Gyr) and a metallicity similar to solar (Z=0.02).