Bibcode
Martínez-Delgado, D.; Läsker, Ronald; Sharina, Margarita; Toloba, Elisa; Fliri, J.; Beaton, Rachael; Valls-Gabaud, David; Karachentsev, Igor D.; Chonis, Taylor S.; Grebel, Eva K.; Forbes, Duncan A.; Romanowsky, Aaron J.; Gallego-Laborda, J.; Teuwen, Karel; Gómez-Flechoso, M. A.; Wang, Jie; Guhathakurta, Puragra; Kaisin, Serafim; Ho, Nhung
Bibliographical reference
The Astronomical Journal, Volume 151, Issue 4, article id. 96, 13 pp. (2016).
Advertised on:
4
2016
Citations
119
Refereed citations
108
Description
We report the discovery of DGSAT I, an ultra-diffuse, quenched galaxy
located 10.°4 in projection from the Andromeda galaxy (M31). This
low-surface brightness galaxy (μV = 24.8 mag
arcsec‑2), found with a small amateur telescope,
appears unresolved in sub-arcsecond archival Subaru/Suprime-Cam images,
and hence has been missed by optical surveys relying on resolved star
counts, in spite of its relatively large effective radius
(Re(V) = 12″) and proximity (15‧) to the
well-known dwarf spheroidal galaxy And II. Its red color (V ‑ I =
1.0), shallow Sérsic index (nV = 0.68), and the
absence of detectable Hα emission are typical properties of dwarf
spheroidal galaxies and suggest that it is mainly composed of old stars.
Initially interpreted as an interesting case of an isolated dwarf
spheroidal galaxy in the local universe, our radial velocity measurement
obtained with the BTA 6 m telescope (Vh = 5450 ± 40 km
s‑1) shows that this system is an M31-background galaxy
associated with the filament of the Pisces-Perseus supercluster. At the
distance of this cluster (∼78 Mpc), DGSAT I would have an
Re ∼ 4.7 kpc and MV ∼ ‑16.3. Its
properties resemble those of the ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) recently
discovered in the Coma cluster. DGSAT I is the first case of these rare
UDGs found in this galaxy cluster. Unlike the UDGs associated with the
Coma and Virgo clusters, DGSAT I is found in a much lower density
environment, which provides a fresh constraint on the formation
mechanisms for this intriguing class of galaxy.