ALFALFA discovery of Leo P. IV. VI photometry

The HI and follow-up optical observations have shown that Leo P is a gas-rich dwarf galaxy with both active star formation and an underlying older population, as well as an extremely low oxygen abundance. Here, we measure the distance to Leo P by applying the tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) distance method to photometry of the resolved stellar population from new Large Binocular Telescope V and I band imaging.

We measure a distance modulus of 26.19^+0.17^_-0.50_mag corresponding to a distance of 1.72^+0.14^_0.40_Mpc. Although our photometry reaches 3mag below the TRGB, the sparseness of the red giant branch yields higher uncertainties on the lower limit of the distance. Leo P is outside the Local Group with a distance and velocity consistent with the local Hubble flow.