Hot Stars in Stellar Populations of Galaxies

Star-forming galaxies are hosts of dominant populations of recently formed, hot, massive stars, which give rise to conspicuous stellar spectral features and provide the ionizing fluxes. Strong outflows of these stars shape their properties. These winds affect the evolution and the output of ionizing...

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Main Author: Claus Leitherer
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-03-01
Series:Galaxies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4434/13/2/20
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author Claus Leitherer
author_facet Claus Leitherer
author_sort Claus Leitherer
collection DOAJ
description Star-forming galaxies are hosts of dominant populations of recently formed, hot, massive stars, which give rise to conspicuous stellar spectral features and provide the ionizing fluxes. Strong outflows of these stars shape their properties. These winds affect the evolution and the output of ionizing radiation, as well as the energy and momentum input in the interstellar medium and the chemical enrichment. Many properties of massive stars become even more extreme at a low metallicity. Owing to the pioneering observations of young, metal-poor stellar populations, both locally with HST and large ground-based facilities and at high redshift with JWST, we are at a key moment to assess our understanding of hot massive stars in these galaxies. Stellar population synthesis is a key tool. I will demonstrate how population models of hot, massive stars help to address some issues at the forefront of current research. The recent advent of new evolutionary and atmosphere models of massive stars probing new parameter space allows us to characterize the properties of nearby and distant populations.
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spelling doaj-art-ae0683c08e99415ba2599f2dd73591b62025-08-20T02:28:36ZengMDPI AGGalaxies2075-44342025-03-011322010.3390/galaxies13020020Hot Stars in Stellar Populations of GalaxiesClaus Leitherer0Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr, Baltimore, MD 21218, USAStar-forming galaxies are hosts of dominant populations of recently formed, hot, massive stars, which give rise to conspicuous stellar spectral features and provide the ionizing fluxes. Strong outflows of these stars shape their properties. These winds affect the evolution and the output of ionizing radiation, as well as the energy and momentum input in the interstellar medium and the chemical enrichment. Many properties of massive stars become even more extreme at a low metallicity. Owing to the pioneering observations of young, metal-poor stellar populations, both locally with HST and large ground-based facilities and at high redshift with JWST, we are at a key moment to assess our understanding of hot massive stars in these galaxies. Stellar population synthesis is a key tool. I will demonstrate how population models of hot, massive stars help to address some issues at the forefront of current research. The recent advent of new evolutionary and atmosphere models of massive stars probing new parameter space allows us to characterize the properties of nearby and distant populations.https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4434/13/2/20massive starsstellar windsstellar populationsH II regionsstar-forming galaxieschemical abundances
spellingShingle Claus Leitherer
Hot Stars in Stellar Populations of Galaxies
Galaxies
massive stars
stellar winds
stellar populations
H II regions
star-forming galaxies
chemical abundances
title Hot Stars in Stellar Populations of Galaxies
title_full Hot Stars in Stellar Populations of Galaxies
title_fullStr Hot Stars in Stellar Populations of Galaxies
title_full_unstemmed Hot Stars in Stellar Populations of Galaxies
title_short Hot Stars in Stellar Populations of Galaxies
title_sort hot stars in stellar populations of galaxies
topic massive stars
stellar winds
stellar populations
H II regions
star-forming galaxies
chemical abundances
url https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4434/13/2/20
work_keys_str_mv AT clausleitherer hotstarsinstellarpopulationsofgalaxies