Bibcode
McMonigal, B.; Bate, N. F.; Lewis, G. F.; Irwin, M. J.; Battaglia, G.; Ibata, R. A.; Martin, N. F.; McConnachie, A. W.; Guglielmo, M.; Conn, A. R.
Bibliographical reference
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 444, Issue 4, p.3139-3149
Advertised on:
11
2014
Citations
38
Refereed citations
36
Description
We present deep optical photometry from the DECam imager on the 4 m
Blanco telescope of over 12 deg2 around the Carina dwarf
spheroidal, with complete coverage out to 1 deg and partial coverage
extending out to 2.6 deg. Using a Poisson-based matched-filter analysis
to identify stars from each of the three main stellar populations, old,
intermediate, and young, we confirm the previously identified radial age
gradient, distance, tidal radius, stellar radial profiles, relative
stellar population sizes, ellipticity, and position angle. We find an
angular offset between the three main elliptical populations of Carina,
and find only tentative evidence for tidal debris, suggesting that past
tidal interactions could not have significantly influenced the Carina
dwarf. We detect stars in the vicinity of, but distinct to, the Carina
dwarf, and measure their distance to be 46±2 kpc. We determine
this population to be part of the halo of the Large Magellanic Cloud at
an angular radius of over 20 deg. Due to overlap in colour-magnitude
space with Magellanic stars, previously detected tidal features in the
old population of Carina are likely weaker than previously thought.
Related projects
![A laser beam launched from the VLT's Yepun telescope and in background a majestic view of the southern sky, with the disc of the Milky Way crossing the image and the Magellanic Clouds on the top right A view of our Milky Way galaxy with its close neighbors the Magellanic Clouds](/sites/default/files/styles/crop_square_2_2_to_320px/public/images/project/imagen-battaglia.jpg?h=fc948ffc&itok=zzZBOpLu)
Galaxy Evolution in the Local Group
Galaxy formation and evolution is a fundamental Astrophysical problem. Its study requires “travelling back in time”, for which there are two complementary approaches. One is to analyse galaxy properties as a function of red-shift. Our team focuses on the other approach, called “Galactic Archaeology”. It is based on the determination of galaxy
Matteo
Monelli