The Galaxy's Eating Habits

Are dwarf spheroidal galaxies dark matter dominated? We present N-body simulations of the interaction between the Milky Way and its closest companion, the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy, constrained by new kinematic, distance and surface density observations detailed in a companion paper. It is shown that there is no possible self-consistent solution to the present existence of the Sagittarius dwarf if its distribution of luminous matter traces the underlying distributio...

We have measured the 21-cm line of Galactic HI over more than 50 square degrees in the direction of the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy. The data show no evidence of HI associated with the dwarf spheroidal which might be consider analogous to the Magellanic Stream as it is associated in both position and velocity with the Large Magellanic Cloud. Nor do the HI data show evidence for any disturbance in the Milky Way disk gas that can be unambiguously assigned to interaction...

The infall of the Sagittarius (Sgr) Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy in the Milky Way halo is an unique opportunity to understand how the different components of a dwarf galaxy could be tidally removed. In this work, we reconstruct the Sgr core morphology and kinematics on the basis of a model that has already successfully reproduced the Sgr stream. Here we use a very high resolution model that almost resolves individual stars in the Sgr core. It reproduces most of the observed morpho...

The Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal (Sgr dSph) galaxy provides one of the most convincing examples of tidal interaction between satellite galaxies and the Milky Way (MW). The main body of the dwarf was recently demonstrated to have an elongated, prolate, bar-like shape and to possess some internal rotation. Whether these features are temporary results of the strong tidal interaction at the recent pericenter passage or are due to a disky progenitor is a matter of debate. I presen...

We present a quantitative comparison between the Horizontal Branch morphology in the core of the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy (Sgr) and in a wide field sampling a portion of its tidal stream (Sgr Stream), located tens of kpc away from the center of the parent galaxy. We find that the Blue Horizontal Branch (BHB) stars in that part of the Stream are five times more abundant than in the Sgr core, relative to Red Clump stars. The difference in the ratio of BHB to RC stars...

We measure the spatial density of F turnoff stars in the Sagittarius dwarf tidal stream, from Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data, using statistical photometric parallax. We find a set of continuous, consistent parameters that describe the leading Sgr stream's position, direction, and width for 15 stripes in the North Galactic Cap, and 3 stripes in the South Galactic Cap. We produce a catalog of stars that has the density characteristics of the dominant leading Sgr tidal str...

Using two HST/ACS data-sets that are separated by ~2 years has allowed us to derive the relative proper-motion for the Sagittarius dwarf irregular (SagDIG) and reduce the heavy foreground Galactic contamination. The proper-motion decontaminated SagDIG catalog provides a much clearer view of the young red-supergiant and intermediate-age asymptotic giant branch populations. We report the identification of 3 Milky Way carbon-rich dwarf stars, probably belonging to the thin disk,...

We present evidence that nearly half of the dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSph and dSph/dIrr) in the Local Group are associated with large reservoirs of atomic gas, in some cases larger than the stellar mass. The gas is sometimes found at large distance (~10 kpc) from the center of a galaxy and is not necessarily centered on it. Similarly large quantities of ionized gas could be hidden in these systems as well. The properties of some of the gas reservoirs are similar to the medi...

We present three-dimensional kinematics of Sagittarius (Sgr) trailing tidal debris in six fields located 70-130 degrees along the stream from the Sgr dwarf galaxy core. The data are from our proper-motion (PM) survey of Kapteyn's Selected Areas, in which we have measured accurate PMs to faint magnitudes in 40x40 arcmin fields evenly spaced across the sky. The radial velocity (RV) signature of Sgr has been identified among our follow-up spectroscopic data in four of the six fi...

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, 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 3 magnitude slices, and there is also evidence for a sti...