| 1. |
- Montes, Mireia, et al.
(författare)
-
An almost dark galaxy with the mass of the Small Magellanic Cloud
- 2024
-
Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 681
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Almost dark galaxies are objects that have eluded detection by traditional surveys such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The low surface brightness of these galaxies (μr(0) > 26 mag arcsec−2), and hence their low surface stellar mass density (a few solar masses per pc2 or less), suggest that the energy density released by baryonic feedback mechanisms is inefficient in modifying the distribution of the dark matter halos they inhabit. For this reason, almost dark galaxies are particularly promising for probing the microphysical nature of dark matter. In this paper, we present the serendipitous discovery of Nube, an almost dark galaxy with ⟨μV⟩e ∼ 26.7 mag arcsec−2. The galaxy was identified using deep optical imaging from the IAC Stripe82 Legacy Project. Follow-up observations with the 100 m Green Bank Telescope strongly suggest that the galaxy is at a distance of 107 Mpc. Ultra-deep multi-band observations with the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias favour an age of ∼10 Gyr and a metallicity of [Fe/H] ∼ −1.1. With a stellar mass of ∼4 × 108 M⊙ and a half-mass radius of Re = 6.9 kpc (corresponding to an effective surface density of ⟨Σ⟩e ∼ 0.9 M⊙ pc−2), Nube is the most massive and extended object of its kind discovered so far. The galaxy is ten times fainter and has an effective radius three times larger than typical ultradiffuse galaxies with similar stellar masses. Galaxies with comparable effective surface brightness within the Local Group have very low mass (tens of 105 M⊙) and compact structures (effective radius Re < 1 kpc). Current cosmological simulations within the cold dark matter scenario, including baryonic feedback, do not reproduce the structural properties of Nube. However, its highly extended and flattened structure is consistent with a scenario where the dark matter particles are ultralight axions with a mass of mB = (0.8−0.2+0.4) × 10−23 eV.
|
|
| 2. |
- Rampazzo, Roberto, et al.
(författare)
-
Extragalactic Astronomy : From Pioneers to Big Science
- 2016
-
Ingår i: From the Realm of the Nebulae to Populations of Galaxies. - Cham : Springer. - 9783319310046 - 9783319310060 ; , s. 1-92
-
Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- At the beginning of the nineteenth century one of the scientific issues driving the research of astronomers, like the Herschels, was to test if all the nebulæ can be resolved into stars.
|
|
| 3. |
- Trujillo, Ignacio, et al.
(författare)
-
Introducing the LBT Imaging of Galactic Halos and Tidal Structures (LIGHTS) survey A preview of the low surface brightness Universe to be unveiled by LSST
- 2021
-
Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 654
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present the first results of the LBT Imaging of Galaxy Haloes and Tidal Structures (LIGHTS) survey. LIGHTS is an ongoing observational campaign with the 2 × 8.4 m Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) aiming to explore the stellar haloes and the low surface brightness population of satellites down to a depth of μV ∼ 31 mag arcsec−2 (3σ in 10″ × 10″ boxes) of nearby galaxies. We simultaneously collected deep imaging in the g and r Sloan filters using the Large Binocular Cameras. The resulting images are 60 times (i.e. ∼4.5 mag) deeper than those from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and they have characteristics comparable (in depth and spatial resolution) to the ones expected from the future Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). Here we show the first results of our pilot programme targeting NGC 1042 (an M 33 analogue at a distance of 13.5 Mpc) and its surroundings. The depth of the images allowed us to detect an asymmetric stellar halo in the outskirts of this galaxy whose mass (1.4 ± 0.4 × 108 M⊙) is in agreement with the ΛCDM expectations. Additionally, we show that deep imaging from the LBT reveals low mass satellites (a few times 105 M⊙) with very faint central surface brightness μV(0) ∼ 27 mag arcsec−2 (i.e. similar to Local Group dwarf spheroidals, such as Andromeda XIV or Sextans, but at distances well beyond the local volume). The depth and spatial resolution provided by the LIGHTS survey open up a unique opportunity to explore the ‘missing satellites’ problem in a large variety of galaxies beyond our Local Group down to masses where the difference between the theory and observation (if any) should be significant.
|
|
