Journal
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Volume 731, Issue 2, Pages -Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/731/2/119
Keywords
galaxies: dwarf; galaxies: interactions; Galaxy: halo; Galaxy: stellar content
Categories
Funding
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- NSF [AST 1008342]
- Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) [10821061, 10876040, 10973021]
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Japanese Monbukagakusho
- Max Planck Society
- Higher Education Funding Council for England
- American Museum of Natural History
- Astrophysical Institute Potsdam
- University of Basel
- University of Cambridge
- Case Western Reserve University
- University of Chicago
- Drexel University
- Fermilab
- Institute for Advanced Study
- Japan Participation Group
- Johns Hopkins University
- Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics
- Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology
- Korean Scientist Group
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (LAMOST)
- Los Alamos National Laboratory
- Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics (MPA)
- New Mexico State University
- Ohio State University
- University of Pittsburgh
- University of Portsmouth
- Princeton University
- United States Naval Observatory
- University of Washington
- Division Of Astronomical Sciences
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien [1008342] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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We use a sample of blue horizontal branch (BHB) stars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 to explore the structure of the tidal tails from the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy. We use a method yielding BHB star candidates with up to similar to 70% purity from photometry alone. The resulting sample has a distance precision of roughly 5% and can probe distances in excess of 100 kpc. Using this sample, we identify a possible extension to the trailing arm at distances of 60-80 kpc from the Sun with an estimated significance of at least 3.8 sigma. Current models predict that a distant returning segment of the debris stream should exist, but place it substantially closer to the Sun where no debris is observed in our data. Exploiting the distance precision of our tracers, we estimate the mean line-of-sight thickness of the leading arm to be similar to 3 kpc, and show that the two bifurcated branches of the debris stream differ by only 1-2 kpc in distance. With a spectroscopic very pure BHB star subsample, we estimate the velocity dispersion in the leading arm, 37 km s(-1), which is in reasonable agreement with models of Sgr disruption. We finally present a sample of high-probability Sgr BHB stars in the leading arm of Sgr, selected to have distances and velocities consistent with Sgr membership, to allow further study.
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