Big Fish, Little Fish: Two New Ultra-faint Satellites of the Milky Way
Abstract
We report the discovery of two new Milky Way satellites in the neighboring constellations of Pisces and Pegasus identified in data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Pisces II, an ultra-faint dwarf galaxy lies at the distance of ~180 kpc, some 15° away from the recently detected Pisces I. Segue 3, an ultra-faint star cluster lies at the distance of 16 kpc. We use deep follow-up imaging obtained with the 4-m Mayall Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory to derive their structural parameters. Pisces II has a half-light radius of ~60 pc, while Segue 3 is 20 times smaller at only 3 pc.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- March 2010
- DOI:
- 10.1088/2041-8205/712/1/L103
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1002.0504
- Bibcode:
- 2010ApJ...712L.103B
- Keywords:
-
- galaxies: dwarf;
- galaxies: individual: Pisces Pegasus;
- Local Group;
- Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- Accepted for publication in ApJL