Kinematics of tidal debris from Omega Centauri's progenitor galaxy
Apr, 2003
14 pages
Published in:
- Astrophys.J.Lett. 589 (2003) L89-L92
e-Print:
- astro-ph/0304361 [astro-ph]
DOI:
View in:
Citations per year
Abstract: (arXiv)
We present the kinematic properties of a tidally disrupted dwarf galaxy in the Milky Way, based on the hypothesis that its central part once contained the most massive Galactic globular cluster, omega Cen. Dynamical evolution of a self-gravitating progenitor galaxy that follows the present-day and likely past orbits of omega Cen is calculated numerically and the kinematic nature of their tidal debris is analyzed, combined with randomly generated stars comprising spheroidal halo and flat disk components. We show that the retrograde rotation of the debris stars at km/s accords with a recently discovered, large radial velocity stream at km/s towards the Galactic longitude of . These stars also contribute, only in part, to a reported retrograde motion of the outer halo at the North Galactic Pole. The prospects for future debris searches and the implications for the early evolution of the Galaxy are briefly presented.References(22)
Figures(0)