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arXiv 1112.2154astro-ph.CO
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矮星系吞噬矮星系:NGC 4449附近的恒星潮汐流和小尺度上的等级星系形成

Dwarfs Gobbling Dwarfs: A Stellar Tidal Stream Around NGC 4449 and Hierarchical Galaxy Formation on Small Scales

David Martinez-Delgado, Aaron J. Romanowsky, R. Jay GaBany, Francesca Annibali, Jacob A. Arnold, Juergen Fliri, Stefano Zibetti, Roeland P. van der Marel, Hans-… 展开作者

David Martinez-Delgado, Aaron J. Romanowsky, R. Jay GaBany, Francesca Annibali, Jacob A. Arnold, Juergen Fliri, Stefano Zibetti, Roeland P. van der Marel, Hans-Walter Rix, Taylor S. Chonis, Julio A. Carballo-Bello, Alessandra Aloisi, Andrea V. Maccio, J. Gallego-Laborda, Jean P. Brodie, Michael R. Merrifield

摘要:

Karachentsev等人先前在附近的矮星暴星系NGC 4449的晕中报告了一个候选扩散恒星子结构。我们使用来自黑鸟0.5米望远镜的深积分光图像和来自8米斯巴鲁望远镜的高分辨率宽视场图像的独特组合来绘制和分析这一特征,这些图像将星云体分解为一系列红巨星分支星,确认它与NGC 4449的物理联系这股流的性质意味着一个巨大的矮球状祖先,在完全破裂后将沉积大量的恒星质量,与主星系现有的恒星晕相当。两个星系之间的亮度或恒星质量之比约为1:50,而间接测量的动态质量比(包括暗物质)可能约为1:10-1:5。因此,这个系统可能代表了一个“隐形”的合并,其中一个卫星星系几乎无法通过常规手段检测到,但对它的宿主星系有很大的动力学影响。这一独特的发现也表明,卫星吸积可以在建立低质量星系的恒星晕方面发挥重要作用,并可能引发它们的恒星爆发。

英文摘要:

A candidate diffuse stellar substructure was previously reported in the halo of the nearby dwarf starburst galaxy NGC 4449 by Karachentsev et al. We map and analyze this feature using a unique combination of deep integrated-light images from the Black Bird 0.5-meter telescope, and high-resolution wide-field images from the 8-meter Subaru telescope, which resolve the nebulosity into a stream of red giant branch stars, and confirm its physical association with NGC 4449. The properties of the stream imply a massive dwarf spheroidal progenitor, which after complete disruption will deposit an amount of stellar mass that is comparable to the existing stellar halo of the main galaxy. The ratio between luminosity or stellar-mass between the two galaxies is ~1:50, while the indirectly measured dynamical mass-ratio, when including dark matter, may be ~1:10-1:5. This system may thus represent a "stealth" merger, where an infalling satellite galaxy is nearly undetectable by conventional means, yet has a substantial dynamical influence on its host galaxy. This singular discovery also suggests that satellite accretion can play a significant role in building up the stellar halos of low-mass galaxies, and possibly in triggering their starbursts.

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