VI photometry of the Leo II galaxy

The Tip of the Red Giant Branch is identified at I^TRGB^=17.83+/-0.03 and adopting <[M/H]>=-1.53+/-0.2 from the comparison of RGB stars with Galactic templates, we obtain a distance modulus (m-M)_0=21.84+/-0.13, corresponding to a distance D=233+/-15kpc. Two significant bumps have been detected in the Luminosity Function of the Red Giant Branch.

The fainter bump (B1, at V=21.79+/-0.05) is the RGB bump of the dominant stellar population while the brightest one (B2, at V=21.36+/-0.05) may be identified as the Asymptotic Giant Branch Clump of the same population. The luminosity of the main RGB bump (B1) suggest that the majority of RGB stars in Leo II belongs to a population that is >~4Gyr younger than the classical Galactic globular clusters. The stars belonging to the He-burning Red Clump are shown to be significantly more centrally concentrated than RR Lyrae and Blue Horizontal Branch stars, probing the existence of an age/metallicity radial gradient in this remote dwarf spheroidal.