A NEW FAINT MILKY WAY SATELLITE DISCOVERED IN THE PAN-STARRS 1 3[pi] SURVEY

We present the discovery of a faint Milky Way satellite, Laevens 2/Triangulum II, found in the Panoramic Survey Telescope And Rapid Response System 3[pi] imaging data and confirmed with follow-up wide-field photometry from the Large Binocular Cameras. The stellar system, with an absolute magnitude o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Astrophysical journal. Letters 2015-04, Vol.802 (2), p.1-6
Main Authors: Laevens, Benjamin P M, Martin, Nicolas F, Ibata, Rodrigo A, Rix, Hans-Walter, Bernard, Edouard J, Bell, Eric F, Sesar, Branimir, Ferguson, Annette M N, Schlafly, Edward F, Slater, Colin T
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Boundaries
Photometry
Satellites
Similarity
Small satellites
Stellar structure
Stellar systems
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Summary:We present the discovery of a faint Milky Way satellite, Laevens 2/Triangulum II, found in the Panoramic Survey Telescope And Rapid Response System 3[pi] imaging data and confirmed with follow-up wide-field photometry from the Large Binocular Cameras. The stellar system, with an absolute magnitude of Mv = -1.8 0.5, a heliocentric distance of (ProQuest: Formulae and/or non-USASCII text omitted) kpc, and a half-mass-radius of (ProQuest: Formulae and/or non-USASCII text omitted) pc, shows remarkable similarity to faint, nearby, small satellites such as Willman 1, Segue 1, Segue 2, and Bootes II. The discovery of Laevens 2/Triangulum II further populates the region of parameter space for which the boundary between dwarf galaxies and globular clusters becomes tenuous. Follow-up spectroscopy will ultimately determine the nature of this new satellite, whose spatial location hints at a possible connection with the complex Triangulum-Andromeda stellar structures.
ISSN:2041-8205
2041-8213
DOI:10.1088/2041-8205/802/2/L18