Triangulum II
Triangulum II (Tri II or Laevens 2) is a dwarf galaxy close to the Milky Way Galaxy. Like other dwarf spheroidal galaxies, its stellar population is very old: the galaxy was quenched before 11.5 billion years ago. It contains only 1000 stars, yet is quite massive, having a solar mass to light ratio of 3600. This is an unusually high mass for such a small galaxy.
The distance from the centre of the Milky Way is 26 kpc (85 kly). The luminosity is 450 times that of the Sun. This makes it one of the dimmest known galaxies. The 2D half light radius is 34 pc (110 ly). The galaxy was discovered in images taken by Pan-STARRS by Benjamin P. M. Laevens in 2015.
Triangulum II is a candidate for detecting WIMPs as a source of dark matter.
References
- ^ Laevens, Benjamin P. M.; Martin, Nicolas F.; Ibata, Rodrigo A.; Rix, Hans-Walter; Bernard, Edouard J.; Bell, Eric F.; Sesar, Branimir; Ferguson, Annette M. N.; Schlafly, Edward F.; Slater, Colin T.; et al. (31 March 2015). "A New Faint Milky Way Satellite Discovered in the PAN-STARRS1 3π Survey" (PDF). The Astrophysical Journal. 802 (2): L18. arXiv:1503.05554. Bibcode:2015ApJ...802L..18L. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/802/2/L18. S2CID 54179272.
- ^ Sacchi, Elena; Richstein, Hannah; Kallivayalil, Nitya; Van Der Marel, Roeland; Libralato, Mattia; Zivick, Paul; Besla, Gurtina; Brown, Thomas M.; Choi, Yumi; Deason, Alis; Fritz, Tobias; Geha, Marla; Guhathakurta, Puragra; Jeon, Myoungwon; Kirby, Evan; Majewski, Steven R.; Patel, Ekta; Simon, Joshua D.; Tony Sohn, Sangmo; Tollerud, Erik; Wetzel, Andrew (2021). "Star Formation Histories of Ultra-faint Dwarf Galaxies: Environmental Differences between Magellanic and Non-Magellanic Satellites?". The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 920 (1): L19. arXiv:2108.04271. Bibcode:2021ApJ...920L..19S. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/ac2aa3. S2CID 236965965.
- ^ Kirby, Evan N.; Cohen, Judith G.; Simon, Joshua D.; Guhathakurta, Puragra (16 November 2015). "Triangulum II: Possibly a Very Dense Ultra-Faint Dwarf Galaxy". The Astrophysical Journal. 814 (1): L7. arXiv:1510.03856. Bibcode:2015ApJ...814L...7K. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/814/1/L7. S2CID 13600560.
- ^ Dajose, Lori (18 November 2015). "Dark matter dominates in nearby dwarf galaxy". Phys.org. Retrieved 19 November 2015.; Lori Dajose (November 18, 2015). "Dark Matter Dominates in Nearby Dwarf Galaxy". Caltech. Retrieved December 16, 2015.