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Galactic halo stellar structures in the Triangulum-Andromeda region

Nicolas F. Martin·Rodrigo A. Ibata·Mike Irwin
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Abstract

This letter reports on the Galactic stellar structures that appear in the foreground of our Canada-France-Hawaii-Telecopse/MegaCam survey of the halo of the Andromeda galaxy. We recover the main sequence and main sequence turn-off of the Triangulum-Andromeda structure recently found by Majewski and collaborators at a heliocentric distance of ~20 kpc. The survey also reveals another less populated main sequence at fainter magnitudes that could correspond to a more distant stellar structure at ~28 kpc. Both structures are smoothly distributed over the ~76 sq. deg. covered by the survey although the closer one shows an increase in density by a factor of ~2 towards the North-West. The discovery of a stellar structure behind the Triangulum-Andromeda structure that itself appears behind the low-latitude stream that surrounds the Galactic disk gives further evidence that the inner halo of the Milky Way is of a spatially clumpy nature.

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Nicolas F. Martin, Rodrigo A. Ibata, Mike Irwin. 2007-08-31. Galactic halo stellar structures in the Triangulum-Andromeda region. https://doi.org/10.1086/522791

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