Bibcode
Trujillo, I.; Fliri, J.
Referencia bibliográfica
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 823, Issue 2, article id. 123, pp. (2016).
Fecha de publicación:
6
2016
Revista
Número de citas
149
Número de citas referidas
123
Descripción
The detection of structures in the sky with optical surface brightnesses
fainter than 30 mag arcsec‑2 (3σ in 10 × 10
arcsec boxes; r-band) has remained elusive in current photometric deep
surveys. Here we show how present-day telescopes of 10 m class can
provide broadband imaging 1.5–2 mag deeper than most previous
results within a reasonable amount of time (i.e., <10 hr on-source
integration). In particular, we illustrate the ability of the 10.4 m
Gran Telescopio de Canarias telescope to produce imaging with a limiting
surface brightness of 31.5 mag arcsec‑2 (3σ in 10
× 10 arcsec boxes; r-band) using 8.1 hr on source. We apply this
power to explore the stellar halo of the galaxy UGC 00180, a galaxy
analogous to M31 located at ∼150 Mpc, by obtaining a radial profile
of surface brightness down to μ r ∼ 33 mag
arcsec‑2. This depth is similar to that obtained using
the star-counts techniques for Local Group galaxies, but is achieved at
a distance where this technique is unfeasible. We find that the mass of
the stellar halo of this galaxy is ∼4 × 109 M
⊙, i.e., (3 ± 1)% of the total stellar mass of the
whole system. This amount of mass in the stellar halo is in agreement
with current theoretical expectations for galaxies of this kind.