The Field of Streams: Sagittarius and Its Siblings

2006/04/24 by V. Belokurov, Vasily Belokurov, D. B. Zucker +27 · 23 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/504797

published as Astrophys.J.642:L137-L140,2006 · ApJ (Letters), in press

openalex publication_date 2006/04/24 · arxiv created 2006/05/01 · arxiv updated 2010/11/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

We use Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 5 (DR5) u , g , r , i , z photometry to study Milky Way halo substructure in the area around the north Galactic cap. A simple color cut ( g - r < 0.4) reveals the tidal stream of the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy, as well as a number of other stellar structures in the field. Two branches (A and B) of the Sagittarius stream are clearly visible in an RGB composite image created from three magnitude slices, and there is also evidence for a still more distant wrap behind the A branch. A comparison of these data with numerical models suggests that the shape of the Galactic dark halo is close to spherical.

Citations

• The Ital-FLAMES survey of the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy
• A Modified Magnitude System that Produces Well-Behaved Magnitudes, Colors, and Errors Even for Low Signal-to-Noise Ratio Measurements

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• Field of Streams [wikipedia]