Swinburne
Browse

The gaseous trail of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy

Download (104.62 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2024-07-12, 14:45 authored by Mary E. Putman, Christopher Thom, Brad K. Gibson, Lister Staveley-Smith
A possible gaseous component to the stream of debris from the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy is presented. We identify (4-10)×106 Msolar of neutral hydrogen along the orbit of the Sgr dwarf in the direction of the Galactic anticenter (at 36 kpc, the distance to the stellar debris in this region). This is 1%-2% of the estimated total mass of the Sgr dwarf. Both the stellar and gaseous components have negative velocities, but the gaseous component extends to higher negative velocities. If associated, this gaseous stream was most likely stripped from the main body of the dwarf 0.2-0.3 Gyr ago during its current orbit after a passage through a diffuse edge of the Galactic disk with a density greater than 10-4 cm-3. This gas represents the dwarf's last source of star formation fuel and explains how the galaxy was forming stars 0.5-2 Gyr ago.

History

Available versions

PDF (Published version)

ISSN

0004-637X

Journal title

Astrophysical Journal

Volume

603

Issue

2

Pagination

3 pp

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Copyright statement

Copyright © 2004 The American Astronomical Society. is reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher.

Language

eng

Usage metrics

    Publications

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Keywords

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC