Bibcode
Fliri, J.; Martínez-Delgado, D.; Jurić, M.
Bibliographical reference
CLASSIFICATION AND DISCOVERY IN LARGE ASTRONOMICAL SURVEYS: Proceedings of the International Conference: ``Classification and Discovery in Large Astronomical Surveys''. AIP Conference Proceedings, Volume 1082, pp. 221-225 (2008).
Advertised on:
12
2008
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
The last years saw numerous detections of substructure in the Galactic
halo, largely due to wide area surveys like the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
(SDSS) or the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS). The analysis of SDSS
data revealed the `Field of Streams' which encompasses, among other
features, the broad and extended Sagittarius tidal stream as well as the
Monoceros and Orphan stellar streams. In this contribution we present
first results from our analysis of Galactic tidal streams based on SDSS
Data Release 6 (DR6) stellar photometry. We use the F star method to
derive stellar density maps for various distance intervals. These maps
reveal a heliocentric distance to the Sagittarius stream near the
Galactic anticenter of ~13 kpc which is lower than previously claimed.
The value also is smaller than predicted by current state-of the art
N-body simulations of the disruption of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy in
the Galactic halo. Our maps furthermore yield a distance between 13 kpc
and 16 kpc to the nearest part of the Virgo overdensity. Rather
surprisingly, we found evidence for a discontinuity in the Orphan
stream. The `disconnected' region extends over a projected length of ~6
degrees and appears at distances exceeding ~25 kpc. If confirmed, this
feature would pose strong constraints on theoretical models trying to
explain the origin of the Orphan stream.