A Panchromatic Study of Massive Stars in the Extremely Metal-poor Local Group Dwarf Galaxy Leo A* * This paper includes data gathered with the 10 m Keck Telescopes located at W. M. Keck Observatory, Hawaii and with the 6.5 m Multiple Mirror Telescope (MMT) located at Mt. Hopkins, Arizona.

  • Maude Gull
  • , Daniel R. Weisz
  • , Peter Senchyna
  • , Nathan R. Sandford
  • , Yumi Choi
  • , Anna F. McLeod
  • , Kareem El-Badry
  • , Ylva Götberg
  • , Karoline M. Gilbert
  • , Martha Boyer
  • , Julianne J. Dalcanton
  • , Puragra GuhaThakurta
  • , Steven Goldman
  • , Paola Marigo
  • , Kristen B.W. McQuinn
  • , Giada Pastorelli
  • , Daniel P. Stark
  • , Evan Skillman
  • , Yuan Sen Ting
  • , Benjamin F. Williams

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

We characterize massive stars (M > 8 M ) in the nearby (D ∼ 0.8 Mpc) extremely metal-poor (Z ∼ 5% Z ) galaxy Leo A using Hubble Space Telescope ultraviolet (UV), optical, and near-infrared (NIR) imaging along with Keck/Low-Resolution Imaging Spectrograph and MMT/Binospec optical spectroscopy for 18 main-sequence OB stars. We find that: (a) 12 of our 18 stars show emission lines, despite not being associated with an H ii region, suggestive of stellar activity (e.g., mass loss, accretion, binary star interaction), which is consistent with previous predictions of enhanced activity at low metallicity; (b) six are Be stars, which are the first to be spectroscopically studied at such low metallicity—these Be stars have unusual panchromatic SEDs; (c) for stars well fit by the TLUSTY nonlocal thermodynamic equilibrium models, the photometric and spectroscopic values of log ( T eff ) and log ( g ) agree to within ∼0.01 dex and ∼0.18 dex, respectively, indicating that near-UV/optical/NIR imaging can be used to reliably characterize massive (M ∼ 8-30 M ) main-sequence star properties relative to optical spectroscopy; (d) the properties of the most-massive stars in H II regions are consistent with constraints from previous nebular emission line studies; and (e) 13 stars with M > 8M are >40 pc from a known star cluster or H II region. Our sample comprises ∼50% of all known massive stars at Z ≲ 10% Z with derived stellar parameters, high-quality optical spectra, and panchromatic photometry.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number206
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume941
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 2022

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

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