Bibcode
DOI
Fabrizio, M.; Nonino, M.; Bono, G.; Ferraro, I.; François, P.; Iannicola, G.; Monelli, M.; Thévenin, F.; Stetson, P. B.; Walker, A. R.; Buonanno, R.; Caputo, F.; Corsi, C. E.; Dall'Ora, M.; Gilmozzi, R.; James, C. R.; Merle, T.; Pulone, L.; Romaniello, M.
Bibliographical reference
Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Volume 123, issue 902, pp.384-401
Advertised on:
4
2011
Citations
23
Refereed citations
19
Description
We present new and accurate radial velocity (RV) measurements of
luminous stars of all ages (old horizontal branch, intermediate-age red
clump, and young blue plume, as well as red giants of a range of ages:
20.6 ≤ V ≤ 22 ) in the Carina dwarf spheroidal galaxy, based on
low-resolution spectra collected with the FORS2 multiobject slit
spectrograph at the VLT. This data set was complemented by RV
measurements based on medium- and high-resolution archive spectra of
brighter ( V ≲ 20.6 ) Carina targets collected with the GIRAFFE
multiobject fiber spectrograph at the VLT. The combined sample includes
more than 21,340 individual spectra of ≈ 2000 stars covering the
entire body of the galaxy. The mean ( < RV > = 220.4 ± 0.1
km s-1) and the dispersion ( σ = 11.7 ± 0.1 km
s-1) of the RV distribution of candidate Carina stars (
˜ 1210 objects, 180 ≤ RV ≤ 260 km s-1, 4σ)
agree quite well with similar measurements available in the literature.
To further improve the statistics, the accurate RV measurements recently
provided by Walker et al. were also added to the current data set. We
ended up with a sample of ˜ 1370 RV measurements of candidate
Carina stars that is ≈ 75 % larger than any previous Carina RV
sample. We found that the hypothesis that the Carina RV distribution is
Gaussian can be discarded at 99% confidence level. The mean RV across
the body of the galaxy varies from ˜ 220 km s-1 at a
distance of 7' ( ˜ 200 pc ) from the center to ˜ 223 km s-1
at 13' ( ˜ 400 pc , 6σ level) and flattens out to a constant
value of ˜ 221 km s-1 at larger distances (600 pc,
4σ level). Moreover, and even more importantly, we found that in
the Carina regions where the mean RV is smaller, the dispersion is also
smaller, and the RV distribution is more centrally peaked (i.e., the
kurtosis attains larger values). The difference in mean RV is more than
4 km s-1 (9σ level) when moving from east to west and
more than 3 km s-1 ( ˜ 7 σ level) when moving
from north to south. The RV gradient appears to be in the direction of
the Carina proper motion. However, this parameter is affected by large
uncertainties to reach a firm conclusion. There is evidence of a
secondary maximum in RV across the Carina center ( | D | ≤ 200 pc ).
The occurrence of a secondary feature across the Carina center is also
supported by the flat-topped radial distribution based on the
photometric catalog. These findings are reminiscent of a substructure
with transition properties that are already detected in dwarf
ellipticals, and they call for confirmation by independent
investigations.
Based on spectra collected with the spectrograph FORS2 available at the
ESO Very Large Telescope, Cerro Paranal, (072.D-0671(A) PI: Bono;
078.B-0567(A) PI: Thévenin).
Related projects
Milky Way and Nearby Galaxies
The general aim of the project is to research the structure, evolutionary history and formation of galaxies through the study of their resolved stellar populations, both from photometry and spectroscopy. The group research concentrates in the most nearby objects, namely the Local Group galaxies including the Milky Way and M33 under the hypothesis
Martín
López Corredoira