IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v412y2001i6842d10.1038_35083506.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A giant stream of metal-rich stars in the halo of the galaxy M31

Author

Listed:
  • Rodrigo Ibata

    (Observatoire de Strasbourg)

  • Michael Irwin

    (Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge)

  • Geraint Lewis

    (Anglo-Australian Observatory)

  • Annette M. N. Ferguson

    (Kapteyn Astronomical Institute)

  • Nial Tanvir

    (Physical Sciences, University of Hertfordshire)

Abstract

Recent observations have revealed streams of gas and stars in the halo of the Milky Way1,2,3 that are the debris from interactions between our Galaxy and some of its dwarf companion galaxies; the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy and the Magellanic clouds. Analysis of the material has shown that much of the halo is made up of cannibalized satellite galaxies2,4, and that dark matter is distributed nearly spherically in the Milky Way. It remains unclear, however, whether cannibalized substructures are as common in the haloes of galaxies as predicted by galaxy-formation theory5. Here we report the discovery of a giant stream of metal-rich stars within the halo of the nearest large galaxy, M31 (the Andromeda galaxy). The source of this stream could be the dwarf galaxies M32 and NGC205, which are close companions of M31 and which may have lost a substantial number of stars owing to tidal interactions. The results demonstrate that the epoch of galaxy building still continues, albeit at a modest rate, and that tidal streams may be a generic feature of galaxy haloes.

Suggested Citation

  • Rodrigo Ibata & Michael Irwin & Geraint Lewis & Annette M. N. Ferguson & Nial Tanvir, 2001. "A giant stream of metal-rich stars in the halo of the galaxy M31," Nature, Nature, vol. 412(6842), pages 49-52, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:412:y:2001:i:6842:d:10.1038_35083506
    DOI: 10.1038/35083506
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/35083506
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/35083506?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:412:y:2001:i:6842:d:10.1038_35083506. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.