First stellar spectroscopy in Leo P

Understand

We present the first stellar spectroscopy in the low-luminosity (M_V ~-9.3 mag), dwarf galaxy Leo P.

• Its significantly low oxygen abundance (3% solar) and relative proximity (~1.6 Mpc) make it a unique galaxy to investigate the properties of massive stars with near-primordial compositions akin to those in the early Universe.
• From our VLT-MUSE spectroscopy we find the first direct evidence for an O-type star in the prominent HII region, providing an important test case to investigate the potential environmental dependence of the upper end of the initial mass function in the dwarf galaxy regime.
• We classify 14 further sources as massive stars (and 17 more as candidate massive stars), most likely B-type objects.