Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Crnojevic, D
• Sand, D J
• Spekkens, K
• Caldwell, N
• Guhathakurta, P
• McLeod, B
• Seth, A
• Simon, J D
• Strader, J
• Toloba, E

Titel

THE EXTENDED HALO OF CENTAURUS A: UNCOVERING SATELLITES, STREAMS, AND SUBSTRUCTURES

Ist Teil von

• The Astrophysical journal, 2016-05, Vol.823 (1), p.19-19

Erscheinungsjahr

2016

Quelle

Open access e-journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• We present the widest-field resolved stellar map to date of the closest (D~ 3.8 Mpc) massive elliptical galaxy NGC 5128 (Centaurus A; Cen A), extending out to a projected galactocentric radius of ~150 kpc. The data set is part of our ongoing Panoramic Imaging Survey of Centaurus and Sculptor (PISCeS) utilizing the Magellan/Megacam imager. We resolve a population of old red giant branch (RGB) stars down to ~1.5 mag below the tip of the RGB, reaching surface brightness limits as low as [mu]v,0~ 32 mag arcsec super(-2). The resulting spatial stellar density map highlights a plethora of previously unknown streams, shells, and satellites, including the first tidally disrupting dwarf around Cen A (CenA-MM-Dw3), which underline its active accretion history. We report 13 previously unknown dwarf satellite candidates, of which 9 are confirmed to be at the distance of Cen A (the remaining 4 are not resolved into stars), with magnitudes in the range Mv=-7.2 to -13.0, central surface brightness values of [mu]v,0= 25.4-26.9 mag arcsec super(-2), and half-light radii of rh= 0.22-2.92 kpc. These values are in line with Local Group dwarfs but also lie at the faint/diffuse end of their distribution; interestingly, CenA-MM-Dw3 has similar properties to the recently discovered ultradiffuse galaxies in Virgo and Coma. Most of the new dwarfs are fainter than the previously known Cen A satellites. The newly discovered dwarfs and halo substructures are discussed in light of their stellar populations, and they are compared to those discovered by the PAndAS survey of M31.