Stellar Populations of Halo Substructure Along The Major Axis of M31
Abstract
We present HST/ACS observations of five regions in the outskirts of M31. Four are centered on prominent stellar overdensities roughly aligned with the major axis. Well-populated colour magnitude diagrams (CMDs) show that these fields differ in morphology from the fifth (Minor Axis) field. Comparisons with isochrones present tantalising evidence that they contain a small contingent of very young (≤ 1Gyr) stars, at odds with what may be expected of typical halo populations, suggesting that this low-latitude substructure could feasibly have formed in the disk.
- Publication:
-
Stellar Populations as Building Blocks of Galaxies
- Pub Date:
- August 2007
- DOI:
- Bibcode:
- 2007IAUS..241..375R
- Keywords:
-
- galaxies: individual (M31);
- galaxies: halos;
- galaxies: stellar content;
- galaxies: evolution