582 research outputs found
SMASH 1 : A VERY FAINT GLOBULAR CLUSTER DISRUPTING in the OUTER REACHES of the LMC?
We present the discovery of a very faint stellar system, SMASH 1, that is potentially a satellite of the Large Magellanic Cloud. Found within the Survey of the Magellanic Stellar History (SMASH), SMASH 1 is a compact (rh=9.1-3.4+5.9pc) and very low luminosity (Mv=-1.0±0.9,Lv=102.3±0.4L⊙ ) stellar system that is revealed by its sparsely populated main sequence and a handful of red giant branch candidate member stars. The photometric properties of these stars are compatible with a metal-poor ([Fe/H]=-2.2) and old (13 Gyr) isochrone located at a distance modulus of ∼18.8, i.e., a distance of . Situated at 11.°3 from the LMC in projection, its three-dimensional distance from the Cloud is 13 kpc, consistent with a connection to the LMC, whose tidal radius is at least . Although the nature of SMASH 1 remains uncertain, its compactness favors it being a stellar cluster and hence dark-matter free. If this is the case, its dynamical tidal radius is only ≲19 pc at this distance from the LMC, and smaller than the system's extent on the sky. Its low luminosity and apparent high ellipticity (ϵ=0.62-0.21+0.17) with its major axis pointing toward the LMC may well be the tell-tale sign of its imminent tidal demise.Peer reviewe
The Magellanic Edges Survey II. Formation of the LMC's northern arm
The highly-substructured outskirts of the Magellanic Clouds provide ideal
locations for studying the complex interaction history between both Clouds and
the Milky Way (MW). In this paper, we investigate the origin of a >20
long arm-like feature in the northern outskirts of the Large Magellanic Cloud
(LMC) using data from the Magellanic Edges Survey (MagES) and Gaia EDR3. We
find that the arm has a similar geometry and metallicity to the nearby outer
LMC disk, indicating that it is comprised of perturbed disk material. Whilst
the azimuthal velocity and velocity dispersions along the arm are consistent
with those in the outer LMC, the in-plane radial velocity and out-of-plane
vertical velocity are significantly perturbed from equilibrium disk kinematics.
We compare these observations to a new suite of dynamical models of the
Magellanic/MW system, which describe the LMC as a collection of tracer
particles within a rigid potential, and the SMC as a rigid Hernquist potential.
Our models indicate the tidal force of the MW during the LMC's infall is likely
responsible for the observed increasing out-of-plane velocity along the arm.
Our models also suggest close LMC/SMC interactions within the past Gyr,
particularly the SMC's pericentric passage ~150 Myr ago and a possible SMC
crossing of the LMC disk plane ~400 Myr ago, likely do not perturb stars that
today comprise the arm. Historical interactions with the SMC prior to ~1 Gyr
ago may be required to explain some of the observed kinematic properties of the
arm, in particular its strongly negative in-plane radial velocity.Comment: Accepted by MNRA
The Magellanic Edges Survey III. Kinematics of the disturbed LMC outskirts
We explore the structural and kinematic properties of the outskirts of the
Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) using data from the Magellanic Edges Survey
(MagES) and Gaia EDR3. Even at large galactocentric radii
(), we find the north-eastern LMC disk is relatively
unperturbed: its kinematics are consistent with a disk of inclination
~ and line-of-nodes position angle ~ east of north. In
contrast, fields at similar radii in the southern and western disk are
significantly perturbed from equilibrium, with non-zero radial and vertical
velocities, and distances significantly in front of the disk plane implied by
our north-eastern fields. We compare our observations to simple dynamical
models of the Magellanic/Milky Way system which describe the LMC as a
collection of tracer particles within a rigid potential, and the Small
Magellanic Cloud (SMC) as a rigid Hernquist potential. A possible SMC crossing
of the LMC disk plane ~400 Myr ago, in combination with the LMC's infall to the
Milky Way potential, can qualitatively explain many of the perturbations in the
outer disk. Additionally, we find the claw-like and arm-like structures south
of the LMC have similar metallicities to the outer LMC disk ([Fe/H]~-1), and
are likely comprised of perturbed LMC disk material. The claw-like substructure
is particularly disturbed, with out-of-plane velocities >60 km s and
apparent counter-rotation relative to the LMC's disk motion. More detailed
N-body models are necessary to elucidate the origin of these southern features,
potentially requiring repeated interactions with the SMC prior to ~1 Gyr ago.Comment: Accepted by MNRA
AN ULTRA-FAINT GALAXY CANDIDATE DISCOVERED in EARLY DATA from the MAGELLANIC SATELLITES SURVEY
We report a new ultra-faint stellar system found in Dark Energy Camera data from the first observing run of the Magellanic Satellites Survey (MagLiteS). MagLiteS J0644-5953 (Pictor II or Pic II) is a low surface brightness (μ = 28.5+1 -1 mag arcsec-2 within its half-light radius) resolved overdensity of old and metal-poor stars located at a heliocentric distance of 45+5 -4 kpc. The physical size (r1/2 = 46+15 -11) and low luminosity (Mv = -3.2+0.4 -0.5 mag) of this satellite are consistent with the locus of spectroscopically confirmed ultra-faint galaxies. MagLiteS J0644-5953 (Pic II) is located 11.3+3.1 -0.9 kpc from the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), and comparisons with simulation results in the literature suggest that this satellite was likely accreted with the LMC. The close proximity of MagLiteS J0644-5953 (Pic II) to the LMC also makes it the most likely ultra-faint galaxy candidate to still be gravitationally bound to the LMC.Peer reviewe
Dry Mergers in GEMS: The Dynamical Evolution of Massive Early-Type Galaxies
We have used the 28'x 28' HST image mosaic from the GEMS (Galaxy Evolution
from Morphology and SEDs) survey in conjunction with the COMBO-17 photometric
redshift survey to constrain the incidence of major mergers between
spheroid-dominated galaxies with little cold gas (dry mergers) since z = 0.7. A
set of N-body merger simulations was used to explore the morphological
signatures of such interactions: they are recognizable either as < 5kpc
separation close pairs or because of broad, low surface brightness tidal
features and asymmetries. Data with the depth and resolution of GEMS are
sensitive to dry mergers between galaxies with M_V < -20.5 for z < 0.7; dry
mergers at higher redshifts are not easily recovered in single-orbit HST
imaging. Six dry mergers (12 galaxies) with luminosity ratios between 1:1 and
4:1 were found from a sample of 379 red early-type galaxies with M_V < -20.5
and 0.1 < z < 0.7. The simulations suggest that the morphological signatures of
dry merging are visible for ~250Myr and we use this timescale to convert the
observed merger incidence into a rate. On this basis we find that present day
spheroidal galaxies with M_V < -20.5 on average have undergone between 0.5 and
2 major dry mergers since z ~ 0.7. We have compared this result with the
predictions of a Cold Dark Matter based semi-analytic galaxy formation model.
The model reproduces the observed declining major merger fraction of bright
galaxies and the space density of luminous early-type galaxies reasonably well.
The predicted dry merger fraction is consistent with our observational result.
Hence, hierarchical models predict and observations now show that major dry
mergers are an important driver of the evolution of massive early-type galaxies
in recent epochs.Comment: ApJ, in press. The paper has been extensively modified, detailing the
automated+visual selection and dry merger classification. 11 pages emulateapj
with 9 reduced-quality figures. A high quality copy is available at
http://www.mpia-hd.mpg.de/homes/bell/papers/dry.ps.g
GEMS: Galaxy fitting catalogues and testing parametric galaxy fitting codes
In the context of measuring structure and morphology of intermediate redshift
galaxies with recent HST/ACS surveys, we tune, test, and compare two widely
used fitting codes (GALFIT and GIM2D) for fitting single-component Sersic
models to the light profiles of both simulated and real galaxy data. We find
that fitting accuracy depends sensitively on galaxy profile shape. Exponential
disks are well fit with Sersic models and have small measurement errors,
whereas fits to de Vaucouleurs profiles show larger uncertainties owing to the
large amount of light at large radii. We find that both codes provide reliable
fits and little systematic error, when the effective surface brightness is
above that of the sky. Moreover, both codes return errors that significantly
underestimate the true fitting uncertainties, which are best estimated with
simulations. We find that GIM2D suffers significant systematic errors for
spheroids with close companions owing to the difficulty of effectively masking
out neighboring galaxy light; there appears to be no work around to this
important systematic in GIM2D's current implementation. While this crowding
error affects only a small fraction of galaxies in GEMS, it must be accounted
for in the analysis of deeper cosmological images or of more crowded fields
with GIM2D. In contrast, GALFIT results are robust to the presence of neighbors
because it can simultaneously fit the profiles of multiple companions thereby
deblending their effect on the fit to the galaxy of interest. We find GALFIT's
robustness to nearby companions and factor of >~20 faster runtime speed are
important advantages over GIM2D for analyzing large HST/ACS datasets. Finally
we include our final catalog of fit results for all 41,495 objects detected in
GEMS.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJS October 2007, v172n2; 25 pages, 16
Figures, 9 Tables; for hi-resolution version, see
http://www.mpia.de/homes/bhaeussl/galaxy_fitting.pdf. For results, catalogues
and files for code-testing, see http://www.mpia.de/GEMS/fitting_paper.htm
The Tidal Tails of 47 Tucanae
The Galactic globular cluster 47 Tucanae (47 Tuc) shows a rare increase in
its velocity dispersion profile at large radii, indicative of energetic, yet
bound, stars at large radii dominating the velocity dispersion and,
potentially, of ongoing evaporation. Escaping stars will form tidal tails, as
seen with several Galactic globular clusters, however, the tidal tails of 47
Tuc are yet to be uncovered. We model these tails of 47 Tuc using the most
accurate input data available, with the specific aim of determining their
locations, as well as the densities of the epicyclic overdensities within the
tails. The overdensities from our models show an increase of 3-4% above the
Galactic background and, therefore, should be easily detectable using matched
filtering techniques. We find that the most influential parameter with regard
to both the locations and densities of the epicyclic overdensities is the
Heliocentric distance to the cluster. Hence, uncovering these tidal features
observationally will contribute greatly to the ongoing problem of determining
the distance to 47 Tuc, tightly constraining the distance of the cluster
independent of other methods. Using our streakline method for determining the
locations of the tidal tails and their overdensities, we show how, in
principle, the shape and extent of the tidal tails of any Galactic globular
cluster can be determined without resorting to computationally expensive N-body
simulations.Comment: Original paper has 10 pages, 10 figures and 2 tables. Please note
that this now includes an erratum. Erratum has 6 pages, 8 figures and 2
tables. Ignore the exclamation marks in Section 2 of the erratum, these are
an artifact of the LaTeX class file used to produce the manuscrip
The Cosmic Horseshoe: Discovery of an Einstein Ring around a Giant Luminous Red Galaxy
We report the discovery of an almost complete Einstein ring of diameter 10"
in Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 5 (DR5). Spectroscopic data
from the 6m telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory reveals that the
deflecting galaxy has a line-of-sight velocity dispersion in excess of 400 km/s
and a redshift of 0.444, whilst the source is a star-forming galaxy with a
redshift of 2.379. From its color and luminosity, we conclude that the lens is
an exceptionally massive Luminous Red Galaxy (LRG) with a mass within the
Einstein radius of 5 x 10^12 solar masses. This remarkable system provides a
laboratory for probing the dark matter distribution in LRGs at distances out to
3 effective radii, and studying the properties of high redshift star-forming
galaxies.Comment: ApJ (Letters), in pres
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