2024/02/02 by P. Coppi, R. Zinn, Coppi, P. S. +13 · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #FOS: Physical sciences #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) #Space Exploration and Technology
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2402.01899
openalex publication_date 2024/02/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We describe photometry improvements in the La Silla--Quest RR Lyrae star (RRLS) survey that enable it to reach distances from the Sun (d\odot) ∼ 140 kpc. We report the results of surveying ∼ 300~ \rm deg2 of sky around the large, low-surface-brightness Crater II dwarf spheroidal galaxy. At d\odot > 80 kpc, we find a large overdensity of RRLS that extends beyond the traditional isophotal contours used for Crater II. The majority of these RRLS (34) have a linear distribution on the sky, extending over 15∘, that runs through Crater II and is oriented along Crater II's proper motion vector. We hypothesize that this unlikely distribution traces extended tidal streams associated with Crater II. To test this, we search for other Crater II stellar populations that should be in the streams. Using Gaia proper motion data, we isolate ≈ 17 candidate stars outside of Crater II that are consistent with being luminous stars from the Crater II Red Giant Branch (RGB). Their spatial distribution is consistent with the RRLS one. The inferred streams are long, spanning a distance range ∼ 80 - 135 kpc from the Galactic Centre. They are oriented at a relatively small angle relative to our line-of-sight (∼ 25∘), which means some stream stars are likely projected onto the main body of the galaxy. Comparing the numbers of RRLS and RGB candidate stars found in the streams to those in the main galaxy, we estimate Crater II has lost \gtrsim 30% of its stellar mass.