An ultra-faint galaxy candidate discovered in early data from the magellanic satellites survey
- Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, P.O. Box 500, Batavia, IL 60510 (United States)
- Wisconsin IceCube Particle Astrophysics Center (WIPAC), Madison, WI 53703 (United States)
- Department of Astronomy, University of Illinois, 1002 W. Green Street, Urbana, IL 61801 (United States)
- National Center for Supercomputing Applications, 1205 West Clark Street, Urbana, IL 61801 (United States)
- Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Casilla 603, La Serena (Chile)
- National Optical Astronomy Observatory, 950 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719 (United States)
- Department of Physics, Stanford University, 382 Via Pueblo Mall, Stanford, CA 94305 (United States)
- Universität Potsdam, Institut für Physik und Astronomie, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24/25, D-14476 Potsdam (Germany)
- Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Mount Stromlo Observatory, Cotter Road, Weston Creek, ACT 2611 (Australia)
- Australian Astronomical Observatory, North Ryde, NSW 2113 (Australia)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260 (United States)
- Observatoire astronomique de Strasbourg, Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, UMR 7550, 11 rue de l’Université, F-67000 Strasbourg (France)
- Department of Physics, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH (United Kingdom)
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{sub −1}{sup +1} mag arcsec{sup −2} within its half-light radius) resolved overdensity of old and metal-poor stars located at a heliocentric distance of 45{sub −4}{sup +5} kpc. The physical size (r{sub 1/2}=46{sub −11}{sup +15} pc ) and low luminosity (M{sub V}=−3.2{sub −0.5}{sup +0.4} mag ) of this satellite are consistent with the locus of spectroscopically confirmed ultra-faint galaxies. MagLiteS J0644−5953 (Pic II) is located 11.3{sub −0.9}{sup +3.1} 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.
- OSTI ID:
- 22868411
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 833, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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