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Register a new userHubble Space Telescope Observations of NGC 253 Dwarf Satellites: Discovery of Three Ultra-faint Dwarf Galaxies
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Added by
Burcin Mutlu-Pakdil
Publication date
2021
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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We present deep Hubble Space Telescope imaging of five faint dwarf galaxies associated with the nearby spiral NGC 253 (D$approx$3.5 Mpc). Three of these are newly discovered ultra-faint dwarf galaxies, while all five were found in the Panoramic Imaging Survey of Centaurus and Sculptor (PISCeS), a Magellan$+$Megacam survey to identify faint dwarfs and other substructures in resolved stellar light around massive galaxies outside of the Local Group. Our HST data reach $gtrsim$3 magnitudes below the tip of the red giant branch for each dwarf, allowing us to derive their distances, structural parameters, and luminosities. All five systems contain predominantly old, metal-poor stellar populations (age$sim$12 Gyr, [M/H]$lesssim$$-$1.5) and have sizes ($r_{h}$$sim$110-3000 pc) and luminosities ($M_V$$sim$$-7$ to $-12$ mag) largely consistent with Local Group dwarfs. The three new NGC 253 satellites are among the faintest systems discovered beyond the Local Group. We also use archival HI data to place limits on the gas content of our discoveries. Deep imaging surveys such as our program around NGC 253 promise to elucidate the faint end of the satellite luminosity function and its scatter across a range of galaxy masses, morphologies, and environments in the decade to come.
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We present a deep Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging study of two dwarf galaxies in the halos of Local Volume Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) analogs. These dwarfs were discovered as part of our Subaru+Hyper Suprime-Cam MADCASH survey: MADCASH-1, which is a satellite of NGC 2403 (D~3.2 Mpc), and MADCASH-2, a previously unknown dwarf galaxy near NGC 4214 (D~3.0 Mpc). Our HST data reach >3.5 mag below the tip of the red giant branch (TRGB) of each dwarf, allowing us to derive their structural parameters and assess their stellar populations. We measure TRGB distances ($D=3.41^{+0.24}_{-0.23}$ Mpc for MADCASH-1, and $D=3.00^{+0.13}_{-0.15}$ Mpc for MADCASH-2), and confirm their associations with their host galaxies. MADCASH-1 is a predominantly old, metal-poor stellar system (age ~13.5 Gyr, [M/H] ~ -2.0), similar to many Local Group dwarfs. Modelling of MADCASH-2s CMD suggests that it contains mostly ancient, metal-poor stars (age ~13.5 Gyr, [M/H] ~ -2.0), but that ~10% of its stellar mass was formed 1.1--1.5 Gyr ago, and ~1% was formed 400--500 Myr ago. Given its recent star formation, we search MADCASH-2 for neutral hydrogen using the Green Bank Telescope, but find no emission and estimate an upper limit on the HI mass of $<4.8times10^4 M_{odot}$. These are the faintest dwarf satellites known around host galaxies of LMC mass outside the Local Group ($M_{V,text{MADCASH-1}}=-7.81pm0.18$, $M_{V,text{MADCASH-2}}=-9.15pm0.12$), and one of them shows signs of recent environmental quenching by its host. Once the MADCASH survey for faint dwarf satellites is complete, our census will enable us to test CDM predictions for hierarchical structure formation, and discover the physical mechanisms by which low-mass hosts influence the evolution of their satellites.
In the last years, a new generation of large-scale imaging surveys have probed wide field regions around some nearby galaxies at unprecedented low surface brightness regime (~28.0-29.0 mag arcsec^-2). This offers a chance of discovering very faint dwarf satellites by means of visual inspection of these public deep images. We report the first results of a systematic survey of faint dwarf spheroidal galaxies in the vicinity of the bright late-type spiral NGC 253 galaxy by means of a visual inspection of the images taken by the Dark Energy Survey. Three new dwarf galaxies have been discovered in the vicinity of the brightest member of the Sculptor filament, the late-type spiral NGC 253. Assuming they are companions of NGC 253, their total absolute V-magnitudes fall in the -7 to -9 mag range, which is typical for dwarf satellites in the local Universe. The central surface brightness tend to be extremely low for all the discovered dwarfs and fall roughly in the range of 25-26 mag arcsec^-2 in g-band. Using known data on distances and velocities of galaxies, we estimate the total virial mass of the NGC 253 group to be 8 x 10^11 Mo, which gives the virial radius R_200 = 186 kpc and the turn-around radius of 706 kpc. We also discuss the possible existence of a spatially flattened and velocity-correlated satellite system around NGC 253. This large-scale structure is orientated almost edge-on to line of sight. The possible plane of satellites is only 31 kpc thick with the minor-to-major axis ratio of 0.14. Four out of five galaxies with measured velocities follow a common velocity trend similar to those observed in the planes of satellites around the Andromeda and Centaurus A galaxies. However, the small number of galaxies with known velocities prevents to reach a definitive conclusion about the formation scenario of the structure and its possible relation to the surrounding cosmic web.
We present FIRE/Gizmo hydrodynamic zoom-in simulations of isolated dark matter halos, two each at the mass of classical dwarf galaxies ($M_{rm vir} simeq 10^{10} M_{odot}$) and ultra-faint galaxies ($M_{rm vir} simeq 10^9 M_{odot}$), and with two feedback implementations. The resultant central galaxies lie on an extrapolated abundance matching relation from $M_{star} simeq 10^6$ to $10^4 M_{odot}$ without a break. Every host is filled with subhalos, many of which form stars. Our dwarfs with $M_{star} simeq 10^6 M_{odot}$ each have 1-2 well-resolved satellites with $M_{star} = 3-200 times 10^3 M_{odot}$. Even our isolated ultra-faint galaxies have star-forming subhalos. If this is representative, dwarf galaxies throughout the universe should commonly host tiny satellite galaxies of their own. We combine our results with the ELVIS simulations to show that targeting $sim 50~ rm kpc$ regions around nearby isolated dwarfs could increase the chances of discovering ultra-faint galaxies by $sim 35%$ compared to random halo pointings, and specifically identify the region around the Phoenix dwarf galaxy as a good potential target. The well-resolved ultra-faint galaxies in our simulations ($M_{star} simeq 3 - 30 times 10^3 M_{odot}$) form within $M_{rm peak} simeq 0.5 - 3 times 10^9 M_{odot}$ halos. Each has a uniformly ancient stellar population ($ > 10~ rm Gyr$) owing to reionization-related quenching. More massive systems, in contrast, all have late-time star formation. Our results suggest that $M_{rm halo} simeq 5 times 10^9 M_{odot}$ is a probable dividing line between halos hosting reionization fossils and those hosting dwarfs that can continue to form stars in isolation after reionization.
The discovery of Ultra-Faint Dwarf (UFD) galaxies in the halo of the Milky Way extends the faint end of the galaxy luminosity function to a few hundred solar luminosities. This extremely low luminosity regime poses a significant challenge for the photometric characterization of these systems. We present a suite of simulations aimed at understanding how different observational choices related to the properties of a low luminosity system impact our ability to determine its true structural parameters such as half-light radius and central surface brightness. We focus on estimating half-light radii (on which mass estimates depend linearly) and find that these numbers can have up to 100% uncertainties when relatively shallow photometric surveys, such as SDSS, are used. Our simulations suggest that to recover structural parameters within 10% or better of their true values: (a) the ratio of the field-of-view to the half-light radius of the satellite must be greater than three, (b) the total number of stars, including background objects should be larger than 1000, and (c) the central to background stellar density ratio must be higher than 20. If one or more of these criteria are not met, the accuracy of the resulting structural parameters can be significantly compromised. In the context of future surveys such as LSST, the latter condition will be closely tied to our ability to remove unresolved background galaxies. Assessing the reliability of measured structural parameters will become increasingly critical as the next generation of deep wide-field surveys detects UFDs beyond the reach of current spectroscopic limits.
We present an F606W-F814W color-magnitude diagram for the Draco dwarf spheroidal galaxy based on Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 images. The luminosity function is well-sampled to 3 magnitudes below the turn-off. We see no evidence for multiple turnoffs and conclude that, at least over the field of the view of the WFPC2, star formation was primarily single-epoch. If the observed number of blue stragglers is due to extended star formation, then roughly 6% (upper limit) of the stars could be half as old as the bulk of the galaxy. The color difference between the red giant branch and the turnoff is consistent with an old population and is very similar to that observed in the old, metal-poor Galactic globular clusters M68 and M92. Despite its red horizontal branch, Draco appears to be older than M68 and M92 by 1.6 +/- 2.5 Gyrs, lending support to the argument that the ``second parameter which governs horizontal branch morphology must be something other than age. Dracos observed luminosity function is very similar to that of M68, and the derived initial mass function is consistent with that of the solar neighborhood.
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