We aim to measure the proper motion along the Sagittarius stream that is the missing piece to determine its full 6D phase space coordinates. We conduct a blind search of over-densities in proper motion from Gaia DR2 in a broad region around the Sagittarius stream by applying wavelet transform techniques. We find that for most of the sky patches, the highest intensity peaks delineate the path of the Sagittarius stream. The 1500 peaks identified depict a continuous sequence spanning almost $2π$ in the sky, only obscured when the stream crosses the Galactic disk. Altogether, around $100\,000$ stars potentially belong to the stream as indicated by a coarse inspection of the colour-magnitude diagrams. From these stars, we determine the proper motion along the Sagittarius stream, making it the proper motion sequence with the largest span and continuity ever measured for a stream. A first comparison with existing N-body models of the stream reveals some discrepancies, especially near the pericentre of the trailing arm and an overestimation of the total proper motion for the leading arm. Our study can be the starting point for determining the variation of the population of stars along the stream, the distance to the stream with red clump stars, and the solar motion. It will also allow a much better measurement of the Milky Way potential.
We present the first full six-dimensional panoramic portrait of the Sagittarius stream, obtained by searching for wide stellar streams in the Gaia DR2 dataset with the STREAMFINDER algorithm. We use the kinematic behavior of the sample to devise a selection of Gaia RR Lyrae, providing excellent distance measurements along the stream. The proper motion data are complemented with radial velocities from public surveys. We find that the global morphological and kinematic properties of the Sagittarius stream are still reasonably well reproduced by the simple Law & Majewski (2010) model (LM10), alth…
We use Gaia DR2 data to show that the globular cluster NGC5634 is physically associated with an arm of the Sagittarius Stream, the huge system of tidal tails created by the ongoing disruption of the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy (Sgr dSph). Two additional arms of the Stream are also detected along the same line of sight, at different distances. We show that the Sgr Stream stars surrounding NGC5634 are more metal-poor, on average, than those found in the more distant Stream arm lying behind the cluster and in the main body of Sgr~dSph, confirming that a significant metallicity (and, presu…
Using proper motions from Gaia Early Data Release 3 (Gaia EDR 3) and radial velocities from several surveys, we identify 60 candidate high-velocity stars with total velocity greater than 75\% escape velocity that probably origin from Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy (Sgr) by orbital analysis. Sgr's gravity has little effect on the results and the Large Magellanic Cloud's gravity has non-negligible effect on only a few stars. The closest approach of these stars to the Sgr occurs when the Sgr passed its pericenter ($\sim$ 38.2 Myr ago), which suggest they were tidally stripped from the Sgr. T…
We use LAMOST DR4 M giants combined with Gaia DR2 proper motions and ALLWISE photometry to obtain an extremely pure sample of Sagittarius (Sgr) stream stars. Using TiO5 and CaH spectral indices as an indicator, we selected out a large sample of M giant stars from M dwarf stars in LAMOST DR4 spectra. Considering the position, distance, proper motion and the angular momentum distribution, we obtained 164 pure Sgr stream stars. We find that the trailing arm has higher energy than the leading arm in same angular momentum. The trailing arm we detected extends to a heliocentric distance of $\sim 130…
We reconsider the case for the association of Galactic globular clusters (GCs) to the tidal stream of the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy (Sgr dSph), using Gaia DR2 data. We use RR Lyrae to trace the stream in 6D and we select clusters matching the observed stream in position and velocity. In addition to the clusters residing in the main body of the galaxy (M 54, Ter 8, Ter 7, Arp 2) we confirm the membership of Pal 12 and Whiting 1 to the portion of the trailing arm populated by stars lost during recent perigalactic passages. NGC 2419, NGC 5634 and NGC 4147 are very interesting candidates…
Because of its particular orientation around the Galaxy - i.e., in a plane nearly perpendicular to the Galactic plane and containing both the Sun and Galactic center - the Sagittarius (Sgr) stream provides a powerful means by which to measure the solar reflex velocity, and thereby infer the velocity of the Local Standard of Rest (LSR), in a way that is independent of assumptions about the solar Galactocentric distance. Moreover, the solar reflex velocity with respect to the stream is projected almost entirely into the proper motion component of Sgr stream stars perpendicular to the Sgr plane, …
The Sagittarius stream is one of the best tools that we currently have to estimate the mass and shape of our Galaxy. However, assigning membership and obtaining the phase-space distribution of the stars that form the tails is quite challenging. Our goal is to produce a catalogue of RR Lyrae stars of Sagittarius and obtain an empiric measurement of the trends along the stream in sky position, distance and tangential velocities. We generate two initial samples from the Gaia DR2 RR Lyrae catalogue: one, selecting only the stars within \pm20deg of the orbital plane of Sagittarius (Strip) and the o…
We analyse an N-body simulation of the interaction of the Milky Way (MW) with a Sagittarius-like dSph (Sgr), looking for signatures which may be attributed to its orbital history in the phase space volume around the Sun in light of $Gaia$ DR2 discoveries. The repeated impacts of Sgr excite coupled vertical and radial oscillations in the disc which qualitatively, and to a large degree quantitatively are able to reproduce many features in the 6D $Gaia$ DR2 samples, from the median $V_{R},V_ϕ, V_{z} $ velocity maps to the local $δρ(v_{z},z)$ phase-space spiral which is a manifestation of the glob…
We present a detailed study of the internal structure and kinematics of the core of the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy (Sgr). Using machine-learning techniques, we have combined the information provided by 3300 RR Lyrae stars, more than 2000 spectroscopically observed stars, and the Gaia second data release to derive the full phase space, i.e. 3D positions and kinematics, of more than $1.2\times10^5$ member stars in the core of the galaxy. Our results show that Sgr has a bar structure $\sim 2.5$ kpc long, and that tidal tails emerge from its tips to form what it is known as the Sgr stream…
The Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal (Sgr) is a dissolving galaxy being tidally disrupted by the Milky Way (MW). Its stellar stream still poses serious modelling challenges, which hinders our ability to use it effectively as a probe of the MW gravitational potential. Our goal is to construct the best possible sample of stars with which we can advance our understanding of the Sgr-MW interaction, focusing on the characterisation of the bifurcations. We improve on previous methods based on the use of the wavelet transform to systematically search for the kinematic signature of the Sgr stream in the G…
We conducted a variable star search on the metal-rich Galactic globular cluster NGC 6652 using archival Gemini-S/GMOS data. We report the discovery of nine new variable stars in the NGC 6652 field, of which we classify six as eclipsing binaries and one as SX Phoenicis stars, leaving two variables without classification. Using proper motions from Gaia DR2 and HST, albeit with some uncertainties, we find that the cluster, the field, and the background Sagittarius stream, have 3 of these variables each. We also reassess the membership of known variables based on the Gaia proper motions, confirmin…
Unveiling the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy Core with Gaia DR3: A Red Clump Distance Precise to 2%
The University of Texas at Austin（德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校）；Whitman College（惠特曼学院）；Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawai‘i（夏威夷大学天体物理研究所）；Texas Christian University（得克萨斯基督教大学）；Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer, Canada-France-Hawaii-Telescope（莫纳克亚光谱巡天项目，加拿大法国夏威夷望远镜）
We present the metallicities and carbon abundances of four newly discovered metal-poor stars with $ -2.2 <$ [Fe/H] $< -1.6$ in the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy. These stars were selected as metal-poor member candidates using a combination of public photometry from the SkyMapper Southern Sky Survey and proper motion data from the second data release from the Gaia mission. The SkyMapper filters include a metallicity-sensitive narrow-band $v$ filter centered on the Ca II K line, which we use to identify metal-poor candidates. In tandem, we use proper motion data to remove metal-poor stars …
Satellites orbiting disc galaxies can induce phase space features such as spirality, vertical heating and phase-mixing in their discs. Such features have also been observed in our own Galaxy, but the complexity of the Milky Way disc has only recently been fully mapped thanks to Gaia DR2 data. This complex behaviour is mainly ascribed to repeated perturbations induced by the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy (Sgr) along its orbit, pointing to this satellite as the main dynamical architect of the Milky Way disc. Here, we model Gaia DR2 observed colour-magnitude diagrams to obtain the first detailed star …
We present new photometry and analysis of the twelve variable stars (nine RR Lyrae, three SX Phoenicis) belonging to the Sagittarius globular cluster Arp 2. Of the nine RR Lyrae stars in the cluster, eight are RRab and one is RRc. From the RRab stars, we determined a mean period of $\langle P_{ab}\rangle=0.581\pm0.047$ days, where the error is the standard error of the mean. This places Arp 2 at the border between the Oosterhoff I and Oosterhoff-Int clusters. Using the $V$-band data from the RR Lyrae stars, a distance modulus of $(m-M)_0=17.24\pm0.17$ was determined. From the $I$-band data, we…
Absolute Motion of the Infrared Counterpart to Sagittarius A* in the Gaia Celestial Reference Frame 3 and Limits on an Intermediate-mass Black Hole Companion
University of California, Los Angeles（加州大学洛杉矶分校）；University of Nevada, Reno（内华达大学里诺分校）
This paper uses Gaussian mixture techniques to dissect the Milky Way (MW) stellar halo in angular momentum space. Application to a catalogue of 5389 stars near the plane of the Sagittarius (Sgr) stream with full 6D phase-space coordinates supplied by Gaia EDR3 and SEGUE returns four independent dynamical components. The broadest and most populated corresponds to the `smooth' MW halo. The narrowest and faintest contains 40 stars of the Orphan stream. We find a component with little or no angular momentum likely associated with the GSE substructure. We also identify 925 stars and 7 Globular Clus…
We explore the contribution of the Gaia-Sausage to the stellar halo of the Milky Way by making use of a Gaussian Mixture model (GMM) and applying it to halo star samples of LAMOST K giants, SEGUE K giants, and SDSS blue horizontal branch stars. The GMM divides the stellar halo into two parts, of which one represents a more metal-rich and highly radially biased component associated with an ancient, head-on collision referred to as the Gaia-Sausage, and the other one is a more metal-poor and isotropic halo. A symmetric bimodal Gaussian is used to describe the distribution of spherical velocity o…
We have assembled a large-area spectroscopic survey of giant stars in the Sagittarius (Sgr) dwarf galaxy core. Using medium resolution (R ~15,000), multifiber spectroscopy we have measured velocities of these stars, which extend up to 12 degrees from the galaxy's center (3.7 core radii or 0.4 times the King limiting radius). From these high quality spectra we identify 1310 Sgr members out of 2296 stars surveyed distributed across 24 different fields across the Sgr core. Additional slit spectra were obtained of stars bridging from the Sgr core to its trailing tail. Our systematic, large area sa…
Studies of the early chemical evolution of some larger dwarf galaxies ( $>10^7$ solar masses) are limited by the small number of stars known at low metallicities in these systems. Here we present metallicities and carbon abundances for eighteen stars with metallicities between $-3.08 \le \text{[Fe/H]} \le -1.47$ in the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy, using medium-resolution spectra from the MagE spectrograph on the Magellan-Baade Telescope. This sample more than doubles the number of known very metal-poor stars ([Fe/H] $\leq -2.0$) in the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy, and identifies one of th…
The tidal disruption of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy has generated a spectacular stream of stars wrapping around the entire Galaxy. We use data from $Gaia$ and the H3 Stellar Spectroscopic Survey to identify 823 high-quality Sagittarius members based on their angular momenta. The H3 Survey is largely unbiased in metallicity, and so our sample of Sagittarius members is similarly unbiased. Stream stars span a wide range in [Fe/H] from $-0.2$ to $\approx -3.0$, with a mean overall metallicity of $\langle$[Fe/H]$\rangle=-0.99$. We identify a strong metallicity-dependence to the kinematics of the s…
We characterize the Gaia-Enceladus-Sausage kinematic structure recently discovered in the Galactic halo using photometric metallicities from the SkyMapper survey, and kinematics from Gaia radial velocities measurements. By examining the metallicity distribution functions (MDFs) of stars binned in kinematic/action spaces, we find that the $\sqrt{J_R}$ vs $L_z$ space allows for the cleanest selection of Gaia-Enceladus-Sausage stars with minimal contamination from disc or halo stars formed in situ or in other past mergers. Stars with $30 \leq \sqrt{J_R} \leq 50$ (kpc km s$^{-1})^{1/2}$ and $-500 …
We employ abundances from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the Sloan Extension for Galactic Understanding and Exploration (SEGUE) to study the alpha-element distribution of the stellar members of the Sagittarius stream. To test the reliability of SDSS/SEGUE abundances for the study of Sagittarius, we select high-likelihood samples tracing the different components of the Milky Way, and recover known literature alpha-element distributions. Using selection criteria based on the spatial position, radial velocity, distance and colours of individual stars, we obtain a robust sample of Sagitta…
Scattering events with compact objects are expected in the primordial black hole (PBH) cold dark matter (CDM) scenario due to close encounters between stars and PBH in the dense environments of dwarf spheroidals. We develop a Bayesian framework to search for correlations among Milky Way stellar trajectories and those of globular clusters and dwarf galaxies in the halo, and other nearby galaxies. We apply the method to a selection of hypervelocity stars (HVS) and globular clusters from Gaia DR2 catalog, and known nearby (mostly dwarf) galaxies with full phase-space and size measurements. We rep…
We constructed a sample of 13,798 stars with $T\rm_{eff}$, log $g$, [Fe/H], radial velocity, proper motions and parallaxes from LAMOST DR5 and Gaia DR2 in the LAMOST Complete Spectroscopic Survey of Pointing Area (LaCoSSPAr) at the Southern Galactic Cap consisting of areas A and B. Using the distributions in both proper motions and radial velocity, we detected very significant overdensities in these two areas. These substructures most likely are portions of Sagittarius (Sgr) stream. With the Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN) algorithm, 220 candidates stream m…
Using multi-epoch observations of the Stripe 82 region done by Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we measure precise statistical proper motions of the stars in the Sagittarius stellar stream. The multi-band photometry and SDSS radial velocities allow us to efficiently select Sgr members and thus enhance the proper motion precision to ~0.1 mas/yr. We measure separately the proper motion of a photometrically selected sample of the main sequence turn-off stars, as well as of a spectroscopically selected Sgr giants. The data allow us to determine the proper motion separately for the two Sgr streams in the …
Before the publication of the Gaia DR2 we confirmed with RAVE and TGAS an observation recently made with the GALAH survey by Quillen ey al. concerning the Coma Berenices moving group in the Solar neighbourhood, namely that it is only present at negative Galactic latitudes. This allowed us to show that it is coherent in vertical velocity, providing a first evidence for incomplete vertical phase-mixing. We estimated for the first time from dynamical arguments that the moving group must have formed at most ~ 1.5 Gyr ago, and related this to a pericentric passage of the Sagittarius dwarf satellite…
Multiwavelength study of the Carina--Sagittarius Arm. I.Astrometric and photometric search for new open clusters in the 320$^ \circ $ $\le$ l $\le$ 325$^ \circ $ region
Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas, (UNLP)（拉普拉塔国立大学天文学与地球物理科学学院）；Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata, (CONICET - UNLP)（拉普拉塔天体物理研究所）；Facultad Regional Concepción del Uruguay, (UTN)（恩特雷里奥斯省康塞普西翁德尔乌拉圭区域学院）
We present high-resolution spectroscopic measurements of the abundances of titanium (Ti), yttrium (Y) and lanthanum (La) for M giant candidates of the Sagittarius (Sgr) dwarf spheroidal (dSph) + tidal tail system pre-selected on the basis of position and radial velocity. The majority of these stars show peculiar abundance patterns compared to those of nominal Milky Way (MW) stars. The overall [Ti/Fe], [Y/Fe], [La/Fe] and [La/Y] patterns with [Fe/H] of the Sgr stream plus Sgr core do resemble those seen in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and other dSphs, only shifted [Fe/H] by ~+0.4 from the L…
In this contribution I provide a brief summary of the contents of Gaia DR1. This is followed by a discussion of studies in the literature that attempt to characterize the quality of the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution parallaxes in Gaia DR1, and I point out a misconception about the handling of the known systematic errors in the Gaia DR1 parallaxes. I highlight some of the more unexpected uses of the Gaia DR1 data and close with a look ahead at the next Gaia data releases, with Gaia DR2 coming up in April 2018.
We present a multi-epoch Hubble Space Telescope (HST) study of stellar proper motions (PMs) for four fields along the Orphan Stream. We determine absolute PMs of several individual stars per target field using established techniques that utilize distant background galaxies to define a stationary reference frame. Five Orphan Stream stars are identified in one of the four fields based on combined color-magnitude and PM information. The average PM is consistent with the existing model of the Orphan stream by Newberg et al. In addition to the Orphan stream stars, we detect stars that likely belong…
Aims: We present the first measurement of the proper motion and orbit of the very distant and intriguing globular cluster NCG 2419. Methods: We have combined data from HST and Gaia DR1 to derive the relative proper motions of stars in the direction to the cluster. To tie to an absolute reference frame we have used a background galaxy located in the field. Results: We find the absolute proper motion of NGC 2419 to be $(μ_α\cos(δ)$, $μ_δ$)=($-0.17\pm0.26,-0.49\pm0.17$) mas/yr. We have integrated the orbit of the cluster in a Galactic potential and found it to oscillate between $\sim$53 kpc and $…
The Ophiuchus stream is a short arc-like stellar feature of uncertain origin located $\sim 5$ kpc North of the Galactic centre. New proper motions from the second $Gaia$ data release reconcile the direction of motion of stream members with the stream arc, resolving a puzzling mismatch reported in earlier work. We use N-body simulations to show that the stream is likely only on its second pericentric passage, and thus was formed recently. The simulations suggest that the entire disrupted progenitor is visible in the observed stream today, and that little further tidal debris lies beyond the end…
We have probed a section (l ~ 150, b ~ -60) of the trailing tidal arm of the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy by identifying a sample of Red Clump stream stars. Red Clump stars are not generally found in the halo field, but are found in significant numbers in both the Sagittarius galaxy and its tidal streams, making them excellent probes of stream characteristics. Our target sample was selected using photometric data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Data Release 6, which was constrained in color to match the Sagittarius Red Clump stars. Spectroscopic observations of the target stars were …
Using a variety of stellar tracers -- blue horizontal branch stars, main-sequence turn-off stars and red giants -- we follow the path of the Sagittarius (Sgr) stream across the sky in Sloan Digital Sky Survey data. Our study presents new Sgr debris detections, accurate distances and line-of-sight velocities that together help to shed new light on the puzzle of the Sgr tails. For both the leading and the trailing tail, we trace the points of their maximal extent, or apo-centric distances, and find that they lie at $R^L$ = 47.8 $\pm$ 0.5 kpc and $R^T$ = 102.5 $\pm$ 2.5 kpc respectively. The angu…
We present the results of the very first search for faint Milky Way satellites in the Gaia data. Using stellar positions only, we are able to re-discover objects detected in much deeper data as recently as the last couple of years. While we do not identify new prominent ultra-faint dwarf galaxies, we report the discovery of two new star clusters, Gaia 1 and Gaia 2. Gaia 1 is particularly curious, as it is a massive (2.2$\times$10$^4$ M$_\odot$), large ($\sim$9 pc) and nearby (4.6 kpc) cluster, situated 10' away from the brightest star on the sky, Sirius! Even though this satellite is detected …
Stellar streams are a promising tool to study the Milky Way's dark matter subhalo population, as interactions with subhalos could produce substructure in streams. However, other possible causes for substructure first need to be well understood. Here we studied the kinematics and the unusual morphology of the stellar stream Jhelum. Using a combination of ground-based photometry and Gaia EDR3 astrometry, we characterized the morphology of Jhelum. We combined this new data with radial velocities from the literature to perform orbit integrations of the stream in static Galactic potentials. We also…
Although previous searches for star clusters have been very successful, many clusters are likely still omitted, especially at high Galactic latitude regions. In this work, based on the astrometry of Gaia EDR3, we searched nearby (parallax > 0.8 mas) all-sky regions, obtaining 886 star clusters, of which 270 candidates have not been cataloged before. At the same time, we have presented the physical parameters of the clusters by fitting theoretical isochrones to their optical magnitudes. More halo members and expanding structures in many star clusters were also found. Most of the new objects are…
We assemble a catalogue of candidate Sagittarius stream members with 5d and 6d phase-space information, using astrometric data from Gaia DR2, distances estimated from RR Lyrae stars, and line-of-sight velocities from various spectroscopic surveys. We find a clear misalignment between the stream track and the direction of the reflex-corrected proper motions in the leading arm of the stream, which we interpret as a signature of a time-dependent perturbation of the gravitational potential. A likely cause of this perturbation is the recent passage of the most massive Milky Way satellite - the Larg…
Aims. We aim to map the 3D distribution of the interstellar extinction of the Milky Way disk up to distances larger than those probed with the Gaia parallax alone. Methods. We apply the FEDReD (Field Extinction-Distance Relation Deconvolver) algorithm to the 2MASS near-infrared photometry together with the Gaia DR2 astrometry and photometry. This algorithm uses a Bayesian deconvolution approach, based on an empirical HR-diagram representative of the local thin disk, in order to map the extinction as a function of distance of various fields of view. Results. We analysed more than 5.6 million st…
We determine the color excesses, photometric distances, ages, astrometric parallaxes and proper motions for 94 open clusters in the northern part of the Milky Way. We estimate the color excesses and photometric distances based on the data from IPHAS photometric survey of the northern Galactic plane using individual total-to-selective extinction ratios R_r=A_r/E_(r-i) for each cluster computed via the color-difference method based on IPHAS r, i, and H_alpha-band, 2MASS J, H, and K_s-band, WISE W1-band, and Pan-STARRS i, z, and y-band data. The inferred R_r values vary significantly from cluster…
We investigate the effects of a massive ($\gtrsim4\times10^{10}M_\odot$) Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy (Sgr) on stellar streams using test particle simulations in a realistic Milky Way potential. We find that Sgr can easily disrupt streams formed more than $\sim3$ Gyr ago, while stars stripped more recently are generally unaffected. In certain realizations, Sgr is able to produce asymmetry between the leading and trailing tails of Pal 5, qualitatively similar to observations. Using data from the Gaia space telescope and elsewhere, we fit models to the GD-1 stream in the presence of a Sgr…
Context. The Gaia mission has released the second data set (Gaia DR2), which contains parallaxes and proper motions for a large number of massive, young stars. Aims. We investigate the spiral structure in the solar neighborhood revealed by Gaia DR2 and compare it with that depicted by VLBI maser parallaxes. Methods. We examined three samples with different constraints on parallax uncertainty and distance errors and stellar spectral types: (1) all OB stars with parallax errors of less than 10%; (2) only O-type stars with 0.1 mas errors imposed and with parallax distance errors of less than 0.2 …
We use the astrometric and photometric data from Gaia Data Release 2 and line-of-sight velocities from various other surveys to study the 3d structure and kinematics of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy. The combination of photometric and astrometric data makes it possible to obtain a very clean separation of Sgr member stars from the Milky Way foreground; our final catalogue contains ~2.6e5 candidate members with magnitudes G<18, more than half of them being red clump stars. We construct and analyze maps of the mean proper motion and its dispersion over the region ~30x12 degrees, which show a numb…
We present a method to identify Ultra Faint Dwarf Galaxy (UFDG) candidates in the halo of the Milky Way using the future Gaia catalogue and we explore its detection limits and completeness. The method is based on the Wavelet Transform and searches for over-densities in the combined space of sky coordinates and proper motions, using kinematics in the search for the first time. We test the method with a Gaia mock catalogue that has the Gaia Universe Model Snapshot (GUMS) as a background, and use a library of around 30 000 UFDGs simulated as Plummer spheres with a single stellar population. For t…
Tracing the very early disruption of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy in the distant Milky Way halo
University of Groningen（格罗宁根大学）；University of Victoria（维多利亚大学）；Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian（哈佛-史密森天体物理中心）；Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie（马克斯·普朗克天文学研究所）；University of Chicago（芝加哥大学）；Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago（芝加哥大学卡弗里宇宙物理学研究所）；Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias（加那利群岛天体物理研究所）；Universidad de La Laguna（拉古纳大学）
Recently, new Sagittarius (Sgr) dwarf galaxy globular clusters were discovered, which opens the question on the actual size of the Sgr globular cluster population, and therefore on our understanding of the Sgr galaxy formation and accretion history onto the Milky Way. Based on Gaia EDR3 and SDSS IV DR16 (APOGEE-2) data sets, we performed an analysis of the color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) of the eight new Sgr globular clusters found by from a sound cleaning of the contamination of Milky Way and Sgr field stars, complemented by Minniti et al. (2021b) available kinematic and metal abundance infor…
Interpreting and modelling astronomical catalogues requires an understanding of the catalogues' completeness or selection function: objects of what properties had a chance to end up in the catalogue. Here we set out to empirically quantify the completeness of the overall Gaia DR3 catalogue. This task is not straightforward because Gaia is the all-sky optical survey with the highest angular resolution to date and no consistent ``ground truth'' exists to allow direct comparisons. However, well-characterised deeper imaging enables an empirical assessment of Gaia's $G$-band completeness across par…
We report the serendipitous discovery of three new open clusters, named UFMG 1, UFMG 2 and UFMG 3 in the field of the intermediate-age cluster NGC 5999, by using Gaia DR2 data. A colour-magnitude filter tailored for a proper selection of main-sequence stars and red clump giants turned evident the presence of NGC 5999 and these three new stellar groups in proper motion space. Their structural parameters were derived from King-profile fittings over their projected stellar distributions and isochrone fits were performed on the clusters cleaned colour-magnitude diagrams built with Gaia bands to de…
We exploit the first \gaia data release to study the properties of the Galactic stellar halo as traced by RR Lyrae. We demonstrate that it is possible to select a pure sample of RR Lyrae using only photometric information available in the Gaia+2MASS catalogue. The final sample contains about 21600 RR Lyrae covering an unprecedented fraction ($\sim60\%$) of the volume of the Galactic inner halo ($\text{R}<28$ kpc). We study the morphology of the stellar halo by analysing the RR Lyrae distribution with parametric and non-parametric techniques. Taking advantage of the uniform all-sky coverage, we…
Super metal-rich (SMR) stars in the solar neighborhood are thought to be born in the inner disk and came to present location by radial migration, which is most intense at the co-rotation resonance (CR) of the Galactic bar. In this work, we show evidence for the CR origin of SMR stars in LAMOST-Gaia by detecting six ridges and undulations in the phi versus Lz space coded by median VR, following a similar slope of -8 km/s kpc/deg. The slope is predicted by Monario et al.'s model for CR of a large and slow Galactic bar. For the first time, we show the variation of angular momentum with azimuths f…
We use data from the Pan-STARRS1 survey to present a panoramic view of the Sagittarius tidal stream in the southern Galactic hemisphere. As a result of the extensive sky coverage of Pan-STARRS1, the southern stream is visible along more than 60 degrees of its orbit, nearly double the length seen by the SDSS. The recently discovered southern bifurcation of the stream is also apparent, with the fainter branch of the stream visible over at least 30 degrees. Using a combination of fitting both the main sequence turn-off and the red clump, we measure the distance to both arms of the stream in the s…
We use N-body simulations to explore the possibility that the Sagittarius (Sgr) dwarf galaxy was originally a late-type, rotating disc galaxy, rather than a non-rotating, pressure-supported dwarf spheroidal galaxy, as previously thought. We find that bifurcations in the leading tail of the Sgr stream, similar to those detected by the SDSS survey, naturally arise in models where the Sgr disc is misaligned with respect to the orbital plane. Moreover, we show that the internal rotation of the progenitor may strongly alter the location of the leading tail projected on the sky, and thus affect the …
Globular clusters (GCs) associated with the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy (Sgr dSph) have evolved under the gravitational potential of both Sgr dSph and the Milky Way. The effects of these potentials are most pronounced in the extra-tidal regions as compared to the central regions of the GCs.We aim to study the extra-tidal regions of the GCs that are possibly associated with Sgr dSph, namely Arp 2, Terzan 8, NGC 5634, NGC 6284, Terzan 7, NGC 2419, NGC 4147, M 54 and Pal 12, using data from the {\it Gaia} early data release 3. We selected the extra-tidal candidates based on their angular …
We present mean absolute proper motion measurements for seven ultra-faint dwarf galaxies orbiting the Milky Way, namely Boötes III, Carina II, Grus II, Reticulum II, Sagittarius II, Segue 2 and Tucana IV. For four of these dwarfs our proper motion estimate is the first ever provided. The adopted astrometric data come from the second data release of the Gaia mission. We determine the mean proper motion for each galaxy starting from an initial guess of likely members, based either on radial velocity measurements or using stars on the Horizontal Branch identified in the Gaia ($G_{\rm BP}$-$G_{\rm…
We have measured absolute proper motions for the three populations intercepted in the direction of the Galactic globular cluster NGC 6681: the cluster itself, the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy and the field. For this we used Hubble Space Telescope ACS/WFC and WFC3/UVIS optical imaging data separated by a temporal baseline of 5.464 years. Five background galaxies were used to determine the zero point of the absolute-motion reference frame. The resulting absolute proper motion of NGC 6681 is ($μ_α\cosδ, μ_δ$)=($1.58\pm0.18, -4.57\pm0.16$) \masyr. This is the first estimate ever made for th…
