Discovery of a tidal dwarf galaxy in the Leo Triplet

Abstract

We report discovery of a dwarf galaxy in the Leo Triplet. Analysis of the neutral hydrogen distribution shows that it rotates independently of the tidal tail of NGC 3628, with a radial velocity gradient of 35-40 km s${}^{-1}$ over approximately 13 kpc. The galaxy has a very high neutral gas content, explaining large part of its total dynamic mass - suggesting small dark matter content. As it is located at the tip of the gaseous tail, this strongly suggests its tidal origin. Should it be the case, it would be one of the most confident and closest (to the Milky Way) detections of a tidal dwarf galaxy and, at the same time, a most detached from its parent galaxy ($\approx$140 kpc) object of this type.

arXiv comment6 pages, 4 figures; The Astrophysical Journal, in press

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Cited by in corpus (8)

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• NGC 3628-UCD1: A possible $\omega$ Cen Analog Embedded in a Stellar Stream
• Large-scale structure and galaxy motions in the Leo/Cancer constellations
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