An External Perspective of a Stellar Tidal Stream: Fossils of the Hierarchical Formation of the Nearby Spiral Galaxy NGC~5907

MartÍNez-Delgado, D.; PeÑarrubia, J.; Gabany, R. J.; Trujillo, I.; Majewski, S. R.; Beaton, R. L.
Bibliographical reference

Panoramic Views of Galaxy Formation and Evolution ASP Conference Series, Vol. 399, proceedings of the conference held 11-16 December, 2007, at Shonan Village Center, Hayama, Japan. Edited by Tadayuki Kodama, Toru Yamada, and Kentaro Aoki. San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 2008., p.461

Advertised on:
10
2008
Number of authors
6
IAC number of authors
0
Citations
1
Refereed citations
1
Description
We present with outstanding detail an extragalactic perspective of an extended stellar tidal stream wrapping around the edge-on, spiral galaxy NGC 5907. Our deep images reveal for the first time a large scale complex of arcing loops that is an excellent example of how a low-mass satellite accretion can produce a interweaved, rosette-like structure of debris dispersed in the halo of its host galaxy. The existence of this structure, which has probably survived for several Gigayears, confirms that halos of spiral galaxies in the Local Universe still contain a significant number of galactic fossils from their hierarchical formation.