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.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in the proceedings of
IAU Symposium 379: Dynamical Masses of Local Group Galaxies. Based on source
article arXiv:2308.1626