268 research outputs found
The Andromeda Stream
The existence of a stream of tidally stripped stars from the Sagittarius
Dwarf galaxy demonstrates that the Milky Way is still in the process of
accreting mass. More recently, an extensive stream of stars has been uncovered
in the halo of the Andromeda galaxy (M31), revealing that it too is
cannibalizing a small companion. This paper reports the recent observations of
this stream, determining it spatial and kinematic properties, and tracing its
three-dimensional structure, as well as describing future observations and what
we may learn about the Andromeda galaxy from this giant tidal stream.Comment: 3 Pages. Refereed contribution to the 5th Galacto Chemodynamics
conference held in Swinburne, July 2003. Accepted for publication in PAS
A Keck/DEIMOS spectroscopic survey of the faint M31 satellites And IX, And XI, And XII, and And XIII
We present the first spectroscopic analysis of the faint M31 satellite
galaxies, AndXI and AndXIII, and a reanalysis of existing spectroscopic data
for two further faint companions, And IX and AndXII. By combining data obtained
using the DEIMOS spectrograph mounted on the Keck II telescope with deep
photometry from the Suprime-Cam instrument on Subaru, we have calculated global
properties for the dwarfs, such as systemic velocities, metallicites and
half-light radii.We find each dwarf to be very metal poor ([Fe/H] -2 both
photometrically and spectroscopically, from their stacked spectrum), and as
such, they continue to follow the luminosity-metallicity relationship
established with brighter dwarfs. We are unable to resolve a dispersion for And
XI due to small sample size and low S/N, but we set a one sigma upper limit of
sigma-v <5 km/s. For And IX, And XII and And XIII we resolve velocity
dispersions of v=4.5 (+3.4,-3.2), 2.6(+5.1,-2.6) and 9.7(+8.9,-4.5) km/s, and
derive masses within the half light radii of 6.2(+5.3,-5.1)x10^6 Msun, 2.4
(+6.5,-2.4)x10^6 Msun and 1.1(+1.4,-0.7)x10^7 Msun respectively. We discuss
each satellite in the context of the Mateo relations for dwarf spheroidal
galaxies, and the Universal halo profiles established for Milky Way dwarfs
(Walker et al. 2009). For both galaxies, this sees them fall below the
Universal halo profiles of Walker et al. (2009). When combined with the
findings of McConnachie & Irwin (2006a), which reveal that the M31 satellites
are twice as extended (in terms of both half-light and tidal radii) as their
Milky Way counterparts, these results suggest that the satellite population of
the Andromeda system could inhabit halos that are significantly different from
those of the Milky Way in terms of their central densities (abridged).Comment: 26 pages, 18 figures, MNRAS submitte
The photometric properties of a vast stellar substructure in the outskirts of M33
We have surveyed sq.degrees surrounding M33 with CFHT MegaCam in the
g and i filters, as part of the Pan-Andromeda Archaeological Survey. Our
observations are deep enough to resolve the top 4mags of the red giant branch
population in this galaxy. We have previously shown that the disk of M33 is
surrounded by a large, irregular, low-surface brightness substructure. Here, we
quantify the stellar populations and structure of this feature using the PAndAS
data. We show that the stellar populations of this feature are consistent with
an old population with dex and an interquartile range in
metallicity of dex. We construct a surface brightness map of M33 that
traces this feature to mags\,arcsec. At these low surface
brightness levels, the structure extends to projected radii of kpc from
the center of M33 in both the north-west and south-east quadrants of the
galaxy. Overall, the structure has an "S-shaped" appearance that broadly aligns
with the orientation of the HI disk warp. We calculate a lower limit to the
integrated luminosity of the structure of mags, comparable to a
bright dwarf galaxy such as Fornax or AndII and slightly less than $1\$ of the
total luminosity of M33. Further, we show that there is tentative evidence for
a distortion in the distribution of young stars near the edge of the HI disk
that occurs at similar azimuth to the warp in HI. The data also hint at a
low-level, extended stellar component at larger radius that may be a M33 halo
component. We revisit studies of M33 and its stellar populations in light of
these new results, and we discuss possible formation scenarios for the vast
stellar structure. Our favored model is that of the tidal disruption of M33 in
its orbit around M31.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 17 figures. ApJ preprint forma
The PAndAS view of the Andromeda satellite system - I. A Bayesian search for dwarf galaxies using spatial and color-magnitude information
We present a generic algorithm to search for dwarf galaxies in photometric
catalogs and apply it to the Pan-Andromeda Archaeological Survey (PAndAS). The
algorithm is developed in a Bayesian framework and, contrary to most
dwarf-galaxy-search codes, makes use of both the spatial and color-magnitude
information of sources in a probabilistic approach. Accounting for the
significant contamination from the Milky Way foreground and from the structured
stellar halo of the Andromeda galaxy, we recover all known dwarf galaxies in
the PAndAS footprint with high significance, even for the least luminous ones.
Some Andromeda globular clusters are also recovered and, in one case,
discovered. We publish a list of the 143 most significant detections yielded by
the algorithm. The combined properties of the 39 most significant isolated
detections show hints that at least some of these trace genuine dwarf galaxies,
too faint to be individually detected. Follow-up observations by the community
are mandatory to establish which are real members of the Andromeda satellite
system. The search technique presented here will be used in an upcoming
contribution to determine the PAndAS completeness limits for dwarf galaxies.
Although here tuned to the search of dwarf galaxies in the PAndAS data, the
algorithm can easily be adapted to the search for any localised overdensity
whose properties can be modeled reliably in the parameter space of any catalog.Comment: 20 pages, 16 figures, 1 table; accepted for publication in ApJ. High
res pdf available at
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7zk7pme2wunwkjv/PAndAS_dwarf_galaxies.pd
PAndAS' cubs: discovery of two new dwarf galaxies in the surroundings of the Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies
We present the discovery of two new dwarf galaxies, Andromeda XXI and
Andromeda XXII, located in the surroundings of the Andromeda and Triangulum
galaxies (M31 and M33). These discoveries stem from the first year data of the
Pan-Andromeda Archaeological Survey (PAndAS), a photometric survey of the
M31/M33 group conducted with the Megaprime/MegaCam wide-field camera mounted on
the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. Both satellites appear as spatial
overdensities of stars which, when plotted in a color-magnitude diagram, follow
metal-poor, [Fe/H]=-1.8, red giant branches at the distance of M31/M33.
Andromeda XXI is a moderately bright dwarf galaxy (M_V=-9.9+/-0.6), albeit with
low surface brightness, emphasizing again that many relatively luminous M31
satellites still remain to be discovered. It is also a large satellite, with a
half-light radius close to 1 kpc, making it the fourth largest Local Group
dwarf spheroidal galaxy after the recently discovered Andromeda XIX, Andromeda
II and Sagittarius around the Milky Way, and supports the trend that M31
satellites are larger than their Milky Way counterparts. Andromeda XXII is much
fainter (M_V=-6.5+/-0.8) and lies a lot closer in projection to M33 than it
does to M31 (42 vs. 224 kpc), suggesting that it could be the first Triangulum
satellite to be discovered. Although this is a very exciting possibility in the
context of a past interaction of M33 with M31 and the fate of its satellite
system, a confirmation will have to await a good distance estimate to confirm
its physical proximity to M33. Along with the dwarf galaxies found in previous
surveys of the M31 surroundings, these two new satellites bring the number of
dwarf spheroidal galaxies in this region to 20.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ; v2: minor
typographical correction
Young accreted globular clusters in the outer halo of M31
We report on Gemini/GMOS observations of two newly discovered globular
clusters in the outskirts of M31. These objects, PAndAS-7 and PAndAS-8, lie at
a galactocentric radius of ~87 kpc and are projected, with separation ~19 kpc,
onto a field halo substructure known as the South-West Cloud. We measure radial
velocities for the two clusters which confirm that they are almost certainly
physically associated with this feature. Colour-magnitude diagrams reveal
strikingly short, exclusively red horizontal branches in both PA-7 and PA-8;
both also have photometric [Fe/H] = -1.35 +/- 0.15. At this metallicity, the
morphology of the horizontal branch is maximally sensitive to age, and we use
the distinctive configurations seen in PA-7 and PA-8 to demonstrate that both
objects are very likely to be at least 2 Gyr younger than the oldest Milky Way
globular clusters. Our observations provide strong evidence for young globular
clusters being accreted into the remote outer regions of M31 in a manner
entirely consistent with the established picture for the Milky Way, and add
credence to the idea that similar processes play a central role in determining
the composition of globular cluster systems in large spiral galaxies in
general.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
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