A New Approach to Exploring the Halo of M31

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

We have conducted a photometric survey for giant stars in the halo of M31. Our fields cover ≈ 5 square degrees, extending to almost 150 kpc from the center of M31 along the minor axis, as well as a strip of fields parallel to the major axis, but displaced by 30 kpc from the center of M31. With these fields we are probing the extent, and flattening of M31's halo, as well as search for tidal debris from M31's dwarf satellite galaxies. This survey was conducted using the Washington Photometry system + DDO51 filter, on the Mayall 4 meter telescope with the MOSAIC camera. This technique allows us to probe large projected areas on M31's halo, while efficiently detecting bona fide M31 giants. Since this survey extends to faint magnitude limits (≈ 24 in V) the use of the DDO51 filter is quite important in eliminating faint foreground dwarf stars from the sample. We present results from our fields on 3 of M31's dwarf galaxies, And I, And II, and And III. We are using the wide field of the MOSAIC camera (.36 square degrees) to look for breaks in the observed radial profiles of giants in these galaxies, a possible indication of tidal disruption, as well as examining changes in the stellar populations as a function of radius from the center of these galaxies.

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