Exploring Halo Substructure with Giant Stars III: First Results from the Grid Giant Star Survey and Discovery of a Possible Nearby Sagittarius Tidal Structure in Virgo

Details Exploring Halo Substructure with Giant Stars III: First Results from the Grid Giant Star Survey and Discovery of a Possible Nearby Sagittarius Tidal Structure in Virgo Exploring Halo Substructure with Giant Stars III: First Results from the Grid Giant Star Survey and Discovery of a Possible Nearby Sagittarius Tidal Structure in Virgo

2002-08-14

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0208276v1

Astrophys.J.576:L125-L130,2002

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

8 pages including 4 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJL

Scientific paper

10.1086/343728

We describe first results of a spectroscopic probe of selected fields from the Grid Giant Star Survey. Multifiber spectroscopy of several hundred stars in a strip of eleven fields along delta approximately -17^{circ}, in the range 12 <~ alpha <~ 17 hours, reveals a group of 8 giants that have kinematical characteristics differing from the main field population, but that as a group maintain coherent, smoothly varying distances and radial velocities with position across the fields. Moreover, these stars have roughly the same abundance, according to their MgH+Mgb absorption line strengths. Photometric parallaxes place these stars in a semi-loop structure, arcing in a contiguous distribution between 5.7 and 7.9 kpc from the Galactic center. The spatial, kinematical, and abundance coherence of these stars suggests that they are part of a diffuse stream of tidal debris, and one roughly consistent with a wrapped, leading tidal arm of the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy.

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