Starry tail tells the tale of dwarf galaxy evolution

An enormous diffuse tail of stars has been found emanating from a big, faint dwarf galaxy. The presence of a tail signifies that the galaxy has skilled current interplay with one other galaxy. This is a crucial clue for understanding how so referred to as “ultra-diffuse” galaxies are fashioned.

Astronomers utilizing the Subaru Telescope and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope discovered a tail of stars stretching 200,000 light-years out away from a galaxy generally known as F8D1. This galaxy is a member of the M81 group situated 12 million light-years away on the boundary between the constellations Ursa Main and Camelopardalis.

F8D1 is likely one of the closest examples of an “ultra-diffuse” galaxy (UDG). The origin of those enigmatic galaxies has puzzled astronomers for a number of many years: are they born this diffuse or does some later occasion trigger them to puff up in dimension?

The invention of an enormous tidal tail from F8D1 is compelling proof that the galaxy has been strongly formed by occasions previously billion years. That is the primary time that such a stellar stream has been found in a UDG. The group suggests F8D1 was disrupted by a current shut passage to the huge spiral M81, the dominant member of the group containing F8D1.

Since F8D1 lies on the fringe of the survey space, just one tidal arm might be seen, extending to the northeast. The group will now search to see if there’s a counterpart stream to the southwest.

These outcomes appeared as an article titled “A story of a tail: a tidally disrupting ultra-diffuse galaxy within the M81 group” within the Month-to-month Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.