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Leo T Dissected with the MUSE-Faint Survey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2025

Daniel Vaz Open the ORCID record for Daniel Vaz [Opens in a new window] ,
Jarle Brinchmann  and
The MUSE Collaboration
Daniel Vaz*
Affiliation:
Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço, Universidade do Porto, CAUP, Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto, Portugal Departamento de Física e Astronomia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre 687, PT4169-007 Porto, Portugal
Jarle Brinchmann
Affiliation:
Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço, Universidade do Porto, CAUP, Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto, Portugal Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
*
email: Daniel.Vaz@astro.up.pt
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Abstract

Leo T is the lowest mass galaxy known to contain neutral gas and to show signs of recent star formation, which makes it a valuable laboratory for studying the nature of gas and star formation at the limits of where galaxies are found to have rejuvenating episodes of star formation.

Here we discuss a novel study of Leo T that uses data from the MUSE integral field spectrograph and photometric data from HST. The high sensitivity of MUSE allowed us to increase the number of Leo T stars observed spectroscopically from 19 to 75. We studied the age and metallicity of these stars and identified two populations, all consistent with similar metallicity of [Fe/H] ∼ − 1.5 dex, suggesting that a large fraction of metals were ejected. Within the young population, we discovered three emission line Be stars, supporting the conclusion that rapidly rotating massive stars are common in metal-poor environments. We find differences in the dynamics of young and old stars, with the young population having a velocity dispersion consistent with the kinematics of the cold component of the neutral gas. This finding directly links the recent star formation in Leo T with the cold component of the neutral gas.

Keywords

SpectroscopyGalaxiesLeo TStarsKinematicsStar FormationBe Stars

Information

Type
Contributed Paper
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 19 , Symposium S379: Dynamical Masses of Local Group Galaxies , December 2023 , pp. 160 - 166
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of International Astronomical Union

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