2012/01/25 by Shoko Jin, Nicolas F. Martin, Jin, Shoko +12 · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #FOS: Physical sciences #Historical Astronomy and Related Studies #Historical and Architectural Studies #Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1201.5399
4 pages, 2 figures; to appear in the proceedings of the Subaru conference on Galactic Archaeology, Shuzenji, Japan (Nov. 1-4 2011)
arxiv created 2012/01/25 · openalex publication_date 2012/01/25 · arxiv updated 2012/01/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We present a revised analysis of a speculated stellar bridge between the Milky Way dwarf galaxies Leo IV and Leo V. Using data acquired with Subaru/Suprime-Cam over a 1deg x 4deg field encompassing the two satellites and the region in between, we confirm our previous detection of a stellar overdensity between Leo IV and Leo V (de Jong et al. 2010). The larger area coverage and improved depth of our current dataset allow for an improved analysis of the stellar overdensity that had previously appeared to bridge the two galaxies. A main-sequence turn-off feature visible in the stacked colour-magnitude diagram of the contiguously observed Subaru fields reveals an extended stellar structure at a distance of approximately 20 kpc. Its angular proximity to the Virgo overdensity, as well as a good correspondence in distance and metallicity, suggests that the smaller structure we detect may be associated with the much larger Virgo stellar overdensity.