The hot, massive stars in nearby
galaxies can be used to study the current star formation activity. The most
massive stars also contribute significantly to the energy balance and metal
enrichment of their host galaxies.
In the past years we started a
project aimed to characterize the massive star content of two galaxies of the
Local Group: M33 and NGC6822.
The principal results have been
presented in two papers:
Spectroscopy of massive stars
in NGC6822 and M33
Bianchi,
Catanzaro,
Scuderi, Hutchings
2001, PASP, 113, 697
Spectroscopy of early-type star
candidates in M33 and NGC6822. II
Catanzaro,
Bianchi, Scuderi, Manchado
2003, A&A, 403, 111