Leo T is one of the smallest and faintest galaxies in the Local Group—its integrated luminosity is about 40,000 times that of the Sun (absolute visible magnitude of about −7.1).[note 1][3] However, its mass is about 8 million solar masses, which means that Leo's mass to light ratio is around 140. A high mass to light ratio implies that Leo T is dominated by dark matter.[4]
Neutral hydrogen and star formation
The stellar population of Leo T consists of both old and young stars.[3] The old stars probably formed from 12 to 6 billion years ago.[5] The metallicity of these old stars is very low at [Fe/H] ≈ −2.02 ± 0.54,[note 2] which means that they contain 100 times less heavy elements than the Sun.[6] The observed old stars are primarily red giants, although a number of horizontal branch stars and red clump stars were also discovered.[5] After a pause star formation activity resumed about 1 billion years ago resulting in a generation of blue young stars. These young stars, which comprise only about 10% of all stellar mass, appear to be more concentrated at the center of Leo T than the old population. Currently there is no star formation in this galaxy.[5]
Leo T contains significant amount of neutral hydrogen (HI) gas with the mass of about 280,000 solar masses, which is three times more than the mass of the stars in this galaxy.[7] As of 2023[update], it is the least massive galaxy known to contain neutral gas.[2] The gas includes two main components: cool gas in the center of the galaxy with a temperature of about 500 K and warm gas distributed throughout Leo T with a temperature of 6,000 K.[7] The density of this gas is, however, not enough on average for star formation, which indicates that local processes have a role.[clarification needed] Still the presence of hydrogen gas implies that in the future the galaxy will begin forming stars again.[7]
Leo T galaxy may have formed when a small dark matter halo started accretion of gas some time after the reionization epoch. Later this gas gave birth to the first generation of old stars.[8]
Notes
^From another source the absolute magnitude is about −8.0.[5]
^Other sources report metallicity of about −1.5.[5]
^ abcVaz, Daniel; Brinchmann, Jarle; Zoutendijk, Sebastiaan L.; Boogaard, Leindert A.; Kamann, Sebastian; Read, Justin I.; Roth, Martin M.; Weilbacher, Peter M.; Steinmetz, Matthias (2023). "The MUSE-Faint survey. IV. Dissecting Leo T, a gas-rich relic with recent star formation". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 678: A59. arXiv:2308.16263. Bibcode:2023A&A...678A..59V. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202346453.