STELLAR POPULATIONS AND STRUCTURAL PROPERTIES OF ULTRA FAINT DWARF GALAXIES, CANES VENATICI I, BOOeTES I, CANES VENATICI II, AND LEO IV

Journal Article · Tue Jan 10 04:00:00 EST 2012 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/744/2/96· OSTI ID:22004287

Okamoto, Sakurako ^[1]; Arimoto, Nobuo; Yamada, Yoshihiko ^[2]; Onodera, Masato ^[3]

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1. Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University, Beijing 100871 (China)
2. National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Osawa 2-21-1, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588 (Japan)
3. Institute for Astronomy, ETH Zuerich, Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 27, 8093 Zuerich (Switzerland)

We take deep images of four ultra faint dwarf (UFD) galaxies, Canes Venatici I (CVn I), Booetes I (Booe I), Canes Venatici II (CVn II), and Leo IV, using the Suprime-Cam on the Subaru Telescope. Color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) extend below main-sequence turnoffs (MSTOs) and yield measurements of the ages of stellar populations. The stellar populations of three faint galaxies, the Booe I, CVn II, and Leo IV dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs), are estimated to be as old as the Galactic globular cluster M92. We confirm that Booe I dSph has no intrinsic color spread in the MSTO and no spatial difference in the CMD morphology, which indicates that Booe I dSph is composed of an old single stellar population. One of the brightest UFDs, CVn I dSph, shows a relatively younger age ({approx}12.6 Gyr) with respect to Booe I, CVn II, and Leo IV dSphs, and the distribution of red horizontal branch (HB) stars is more concentrated toward the center than that of blue HB stars, suggesting that the galaxy contains complex stellar populations. Booe I and CVn I dSphs show the elongated and distorted shapes. CVn II dSph has the smallest tidal radius of a Milky Way satellite and has a distorted shape, while Leo IV dSph shows a less concentrated spherical shape. The simple stellar population of faint UFDs indicates that the gases in their progenitors were removed more effectively than those of brighter dSphs at the occurrence of their initial star formation. This is reasonable if the progenitors of UFDs belong to less massive halos than those of brighter dSphs.

• OSTI ID: 22004287
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 744; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
COLOR
GALACTIC EVOLUTION
GASES
IMAGES
MILKY WAY
MORPHOLOGY
PHOTOMETRY
SATELLITES
STARS
TELESCOPES