A stellar stream around the spiral galaxy Messier 61 in Rubin First Look imaging

2025/10/28 by Romanowsky, Aaron J., Martínez-Delgado, David, Donatiello, Giuseppe +2
#Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #FOS: Physical sciences

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2510.24836

Abstract

We present the first stellar stream discovered with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, around spiral galaxy M61 (NGC 4303) in Virgo First Look imaging. The stream is narrow, radially-oriented in projection, and ~50 kpc long. It has g-band surface brightness (SB) mu_g ~ 28 AB mag arcsec^-2, color g-z ~ 1.0, and stellar mass M_* ~ 2x10⁸ M_Sun. This dwarf galaxy interaction may have provoked the M61 starburst, and foreshadows the bounty of accretion features expected in the ten-year Rubin Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST).

Citations

• Stellar Mass Calibrations for Local Low-Mass Galaxies
• Stellar Streams in the Gaia Era
• Overview of the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys

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