A DEEP VIEW OF THE MONOCEROS RING IN THE ANTICENTER DIRECTION: CLUES OF ITS EXTRA-GALACTIC ORIGIN

Journal Article · Sun Mar 20 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/730/1/L6· OSTI ID:21560439

Sollima, A; Martinez-Delgado, D ^[1]; Valls-Gabaud, D; Fliri, J ^[2]; Penarrubia, J ^[3]; Hoekstra, H ^[4]

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1. Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, E38205 San Cristobal de La Laguna, E38205 (Spain)
2. GEPI, CNRS UMR 8111, Observatoire de Paris, 92195 Meudon (France)
3. Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0HA (United Kingdom)
4. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC V8P 1A1 (Canada)

We present the results of deep imaging obtained at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope with MegaCam in the anticenter direction at two different heights above the Galactic disk. We detect the presence of the Monoceros ring in both fields as a conspicuous and narrow main-sequence feature which dominates star counts over a large portion of the color-magnitude diagram down to g' {approx} 24. The comparison of the morphology and density of this feature with a large variety of Galactic models excludes the possibility that it can be due to a flare of the Galactic disk, supporting an extra-Galactic origin for this ring-like structure.

• OSTI ID: 21560439
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal Letters, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Letters Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 730; ISSN 2041-8205
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
DENSITY
GALAXIES
MORPHOLOGY
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
RINGS
STARS