A Faint New Milky Way Satellite in Bootes
📄 Abstract
We announce the discovery of a new satellite of the Milky Way in the constellation of Bootes at a distance of ~60 kpc. It was found in a systematic search for stellar overdensities in the north Galactic cap using Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 5. The color-magnitude diagram shows a well-defined turnoff, red giant branch, and extended horizontal branch. Its absolute magnitude is M V ~ -5.8 mag, which makes it one of the faintest galaxies known. The half-light radius is ~220 pc. The isodensity contours are elongated and have an irregular shape, suggesting that Boo may be a disrupted dwarf spheroidal galaxy.
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