A vast, thin plane of corotating dwarf galaxies orbiting the Andromeda galaxy

被引:389
|
作者
Ibata, Rodrigo A. [1 ]
Lewis, Geraint F. [2 ]
Conn, Anthony R. [3 ]
Irwin, Michael J. [4 ]
McConnachie, Alan W. [5 ]
Chapman, Scott C. [6 ]
Collins, Michelle L. [7 ]
Fardal, Mark [8 ]
Ferguson, Annette M. N. [9 ]
Ibata, Neil G. [10 ]
Mackey, A. Dougal [11 ]
Martin, Nicolas F. [1 ,7 ]
Navarro, Julio [12 ]
Rich, R. Michael [13 ]
Valls-Gabaud, David [14 ]
Widrow, Lawrence M. [15 ]
机构
[1] Observ Astron, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
[2] Univ Sydney, Sch Phys, Sydney Inst Astron, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
[3] Macquarie Univ, Dept Phys & Astron, N Ryde, NSW 2109, Australia
[4] Univ Cambridge, Inst Astron, Cambridge CB3 0HA, England
[5] NRC Herzberg Inst Astrophys, Victoria, BC V9E 2E7, Canada
[6] Dalhousie Univ, Dept Phys & Atmospher Sci, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, Canada
[7] Max Planck Inst Astron, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany
[8] Univ Massachusetts, Dept Astron, Amherst, MA 01003 USA
[9] Univ Edinburgh, Inst Astron, Royal Observ, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, Midlothian, Scotland
[10] Lyce Int Pontonniers, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
[11] Australian Natl Univ, Mt Stromlo Observ, Weston, ACT 2611, Australia
[12] Univ Victoria, Dept Phys & Astron, Victoria, BC V8P 5C2, Canada
[13] Univ Calif Los Angeles, Dept Phys & Astron, Los Angeles, CA 90095 USA
[14] Observ Paris, LERMA, CNRS, UMR 8112, F-75014 Paris, France
[15] Queens Univ, Dept Phys Engn Phys & Astron, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada
基金
澳大利亚研究理事会; 美国国家科学基金会;
关键词
RED GIANT BRANCH; ANISOTROPIC DISTRIBUTION; SATELLITE GALAXIES; BAYESIAN-APPROACH; MILKY-WAY; TIP; VELOCITY; MASS;
D O I
10.1038/nature11717
中图分类号
O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];
学科分类号
07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;
摘要
Dwarf satellite galaxies are thought to be the remnants of the population of primordial structures that coalesced to form giant galaxies like the Milky Way(1). It has previously been suspected(2) that dwarf galaxies may not be isotropically distributed around our Galaxy, because several are correlated with streams of H I emission, and may form coplanar groups(3). These suspicions are supported by recent analyses(4-7). It has been claimed(7) that the apparently planar distribution of satellites is not predicted within standard cosmology(8), and cannot simply represent a memory of past coherent accretion. However, other studies dispute this conclusion(9-11). Here we report the existence of a planar subgroup of satellites in the Andromeda galaxy (M 31), comprising about half of the population. The structure is at least 400 kiloparsecs in diameter, but also extremely thin, with a perpendicular scatter of less than 14.1 kiloparsecs. Radial velocity measurements(12-15) reveal that the satellites in this structure have the same sense of rotation about their host. This shows conclusively that substantial numbers of dwarf satellite galaxies share the same dynamical orbital properties and direction of angular momentum. Intriguingly, the plane we identify is approximately aligned with the pole of the Milky Way's disk and with the vector between the Milky Way and Andromeda.
引用
收藏
页码:62 / 65
页数:4
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