Sailing to the next safe harbour in our trip to the early Universe: The massive star population of metal-poor galaxies

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Hauptverfasser: Castro, N., Garcia, M., Herrero, A., Sander, A. A. C., McLeod, A. F., Roth, M. M., Negueruela, I., Vink, J. S.
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Castro, N.
Garcia, M.
Herrero, A.
Sander, A. A. C.
McLeod, A. F.
Roth, M. M.
Negueruela, I.
Vink, J. S.
author_facet Castro, N.
Garcia, M.
Herrero, A.
Sander, A. A. C.
McLeod, A. F.
Roth, M. M.
Negueruela, I.
Vink, J. S.
contents Very metal-poor massive stars in the Local Group are our best proxies for the Universe's first stars, making them essential for modeling reionization and early galactic chemical evolution. Studying such stars in our Local Universe is key to extrapolating our knowledge to more distant regions, where individual massive stars cannot be resolved but are dynamically and chemically shaping their environments. The MUSE integral field spectrograph has transformed massive star studies in the Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds, but resolving star-forming galaxies containing very metal-poor stars is at the limit of the current field of view and sensitivity. Therefore, only small dedicated efforts of selected regions are studied, providing us with snapshots of low-metallicity massive stars rather than a comprehensive picture. This scarcity is a major bottleneck for understanding and sufficiently modelling the evolution and feedback of massive stars across cosmic time. We therefore envision a new generation of panoramic integral-field spectrographs and high multiplex multi-object spectrographs mounted on dedicated large optical telescopes. Such facilities will not only allow to resolve very-metal-pool galaxies, but further enable the systematic exploration of the massive stellar content across the entire Local Group, thereby reaching a new era in massive star studies and understanding.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_15817
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Sailing to the next safe harbour in our trip to the early Universe: The massive star population of metal-poor galaxies
Castro, N.
Garcia, M.
Herrero, A.
Sander, A. A. C.
McLeod, A. F.
Roth, M. M.
Negueruela, I.
Vink, J. S.
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Very metal-poor massive stars in the Local Group are our best proxies for the Universe's first stars, making them essential for modeling reionization and early galactic chemical evolution. Studying such stars in our Local Universe is key to extrapolating our knowledge to more distant regions, where individual massive stars cannot be resolved but are dynamically and chemically shaping their environments. The MUSE integral field spectrograph has transformed massive star studies in the Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds, but resolving star-forming galaxies containing very metal-poor stars is at the limit of the current field of view and sensitivity. Therefore, only small dedicated efforts of selected regions are studied, providing us with snapshots of low-metallicity massive stars rather than a comprehensive picture. This scarcity is a major bottleneck for understanding and sufficiently modelling the evolution and feedback of massive stars across cosmic time. We therefore envision a new generation of panoramic integral-field spectrographs and high multiplex multi-object spectrographs mounted on dedicated large optical telescopes. Such facilities will not only allow to resolve very-metal-pool galaxies, but further enable the systematic exploration of the massive stellar content across the entire Local Group, thereby reaching a new era in massive star studies and understanding.
title Sailing to the next safe harbour in our trip to the early Universe: The massive star population of metal-poor galaxies
topic Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.15817