Stellar Populations in the Local Group
We are using spectroscopic surveys from ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) to study luminous, massive stars in different Local Group galaxies. Shown here is a section of NGC 3109, an irregular galaxy at the edge of our Local Group at 1.3 Mpc. The VLT was used to obtain spectroscopy of the encircled stars, allowing us to probe stellar abundances and kinematics for the first time in this galaxy. This galaxy also appears to be dark-matter dominated, so is an ideal target for further study with the next generation of ground-based telescopes, the so-called Extremely Large Telescopes (ELTs). For more info on stellar populations and/or ELTs contact Chris Evans.