Pisces I (dwarf galaxy)

Pisces I Dwarf Galaxy[1]
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
Constellation Pisces
Right ascension ~23h 40m 00s[2]
Declination ~ −0.3°[2]
Distance 260 kly (80 kpc)[3]
Characteristics
Type dSph?
Apparent size (V) ~1°[2]
Other designations
Pisces I[1]

Pisces I or Pisces overdensity is a clump of stars in the Milky Way's halo, which may be a disrupted dwarf spheroidal galaxy.[1] It is situated in the Pisces constellation and was discovered in 2009 by analysis of distribution of RR Lyrae stars in the data obtained by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey's data.[3] The galaxy is located at the distance of about 80 kpc from the Sun and moves towards it with a speed of about 75 km/s.[2]

Pisces I is one of the faintest satellites of the Milky Way.[1] Its mass is estimated to be at least 105 Solar masses.[3] However it has a large size of about several degrees (around 1  kpc) and may be in a transitional phase between a gravitationally bound galaxy and completely unbound system.[2] Pisces I is located near the plane, where the Magellanic Clouds lie. There may exist a connection between the Magellanic stream and this galaxy.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Belokurov, V.; et al. (2010), "Big fish, small fish: Two New Ultra-Faint Satellites of the Milky Way", The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 712: L103–106, arXiv:1002.0504Freely accessible, Bibcode:2010ApJ...712L.103B, doi:10.1088/2041-8205/712/1/L103.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Kollmeier, Juna A.; et al. (2009), "Spectroscopic Confirmation of the Pisces Overdensity", The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 705 (2): L158–L162, arXiv:0908.1381Freely accessible, Bibcode:2009ApJ...705L.158K, doi:10.1088/0004-637X/705/2/L158.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Watkins, L. L.; et al. (2009), "Substructure revealed by RR Lyraes in SDSS Stripe 82", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 398 (4): 1757–70, arXiv:0906.0498Freely accessible, Bibcode:2009MNRAS.398.1757W, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.15242.x.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 6/25/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.