A-type stars in the Canada–France Imaging Survey – II. Tracing the height of the disc at large distances with Blue Stragglers

2018/10/31 by Guillaume F. Thomas, Chervin F. P. Laporte, Alan W. McConnachie +10
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrometry #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Blue straggler #Dwarf galaxy #Dwarf spheroidal galaxy #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Globular cluster #Halo #LAMOST #Milky Way #Photometry (optics) #Physics #Sagittarius #Stars #Stellar kinematics #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.GA

paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/sty3334

9 pages, 6 figures, Accepted to MNRAS

arxiv created 2018/12/04 · openalex publication_date 2018/12/06 · arxiv updated 2018/12/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06

Abstract

We present the kinematics of Blue Straggler (BS) stars identified in the Canada–France Imaging Survey (CFIS), covering 4000 deg2 on the sky in the u band. The BSs sample, characterized through CFIS and Pan-STARRS photometry, has been kinematically decomposed into putative halo and disc populations after cross-matching with Gaia astrometry and SDSS/SEGUE/LAMOST spectroscopy. This decomposition clearly reveals the strong flaring of the outer Milky Way disc. In particular, we show that we can detect this flaring up to a vertical height of |Z| ≃ 8 kpc at a Galactocentric distance of R ∼27 kpc. While some small level of flaring is expected for extended discs built up by radial migration, we demonstrate that the very strong flaring of the Milky Way disc that we observe is likely more consistent with it being dynamically heated by the repeated passage of the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy through the mid-plane.

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