Bibcode
DOI
Durrell, Patrick R.; Williams, Benjamin F.; Ciardullo, Robin; Feldmeier, John J.; von Hippel, Ted; Sigurdsson, Steinn; Jacoby, George H.; Ferguson, Henry C.; Tanvir, Nial R.; Arnaboldi, Magda; Gerhard, Ortwin; Aguerri, J. Alfonso L.; Freeman, Ken; Vinciguerra, Matt
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 656, Issue 2, pp. 746-755.
Advertised on:
2
2007
Journal
Citations
21
Refereed citations
19
Description
We report on the discovery of a faint (MV~-10.6+/-0.2) dwarf
spheroidal galaxy on deep F606W and F814W Hubble Space Telescope images
of a Virgo intracluster field. The galaxy is easily resolved in our
images, as our color magnitude diagram (CMD) extends >~1 magnitude
beyond the tip of the red giant branch (RGB). Thus, it is the deepest
CMD for a small dwarf galaxy inside a cluster environment. Using the
colors of the RGB stars, we derive a metal abundance for the dwarf of
[M/H]=-2.3+/-0.3 and show that the metallicity dispersion is less than
0.6 dex at 95% confidence. We also use the galaxy's lack of AGB stars
and the absence of objects brighter than Mbol~-4.1+/-0.2 to
show that the system is old (t>~10 Gyr). Finally, we derive the
object's structural parameters and show that the galaxy displays no
obvious evidence of tidal threshing. Since the tip of the red giant
branch distance [(m-M)0=31.23+/-0.17 or D=17.6+/-1.4 Mpc]
puts the galaxy near the core of the Virgo cluster, one might expect the
object to have undergone some tidal processing. Yet the chemical and
morphological similarity between the dwarf and the dSph galaxies of the
Local and M81 Group demonstrates that the object is indeed pristine and
not the shredded remains of a much larger galaxy. We discuss the
possible origins of this galaxy and suggest that it is just now falling
into Virgo for the first time.