Eight more low luminosity globular clusters in the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy

Abstract

Context. The Sagittarius (Sgr) dwarf galaxy is merging with the Milky Way, and the study of its globular clusters (GCs) is important to understand the history and outcome of this ongoing process. Aims. Our main goal is to characterize the GC system of the Sgr dwarf galaxy. This task is hampered by high foreground stellar contamination, mostly from the Galactic bulge. Methods. We performed a GC search specifically tailored to find new GC members within the main body of this dwarf galaxy using the combined data of the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea Extended Survey (VVVX) near-infrared survey and the Gaia Early Data Release 3 (EDR3) optical database. Results. We applied proper motion (PM) cuts to discard foreground bulge and disk stars, and we found a number of GC candidates in the main body of the Sgr dwarf galaxy. We selected the best GCs as those objects that have significant overdensities above the stellar background of the Sgr galaxy and that possess color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) with well-defined red giant branches (RGBs) consistent with the distance and reddening of this galaxy. Conclusions. We discover eight new GC members of the Sgr galaxy, which adds up to 29 total GCs known in this dwarf galaxy. This total number of GCs shows that the Sgr dwarf galaxy hosts a rather rich GC system. Most of the new GCs appear to be predominantly metal-rich and have low luminosity. In addition, we identify ten other GC candidates that are more uncertain and need more data for proper confirmation.

arXiv comment8 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in A&A journal

References in corpus (46)

• Gaia Data Release 2. Summary of the contents and survey properties
• Measuring Reddening with SDSS Stellar Spectra and Recalibrating SFD
• LSST: from Science Drivers to Reference Design and Anticipated Data Products
• The merger that led to the formation of the Milky Way's inner stellar halo and thick disk
• A 2MASS All-Sky View of the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy: I. Morphology of the Sagittarius Core and Tidal Arms
• VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV): The public ESO near-IR variability survey of the Milky Way
• The Field of Streams: Sagittarius and its Siblings
• A geometric distance measurement to the Galactic Center black hole with 0.3% uncertainty
• Gaia Data Release 2: Kinematics of globular clusters and dwarf galaxies around the Milky Way
• A catalogue of masses, structural parameters and velocity dispersion profiles of 112 Milky Way globular clusters
• Reionization of the Universe and the Early Production of Metals
• Evidence for Two Early Accretion Events That Built the Milky Way Stellar Halo
• Origin of the system of globular clusters in the Milky Way
• VVV DR1: The First Data Release of the Milky Way Bulge and Southern Plane from the Near-Infrared ESO Public Survey VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea
• Sagittarius: The Nearest Dwarf Galaxy
• The formation and assembly history of the Milky Way revealed by its globular cluster population
• Proper motions and dynamics of the Milky Way globular cluster system from Gaia DR2
• Kraken reveals itself -- the merger history of the Milky Way reconstructed with the E-MOSAICS simulations
• Assessing the Milky Way Satellites Associated with the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy
• The E-MOSAICS Project: simulating the formation and co-evolution of galaxies and their star cluster populations
• The nucleus of the Sagittarius dSph galaxy and M54: a window on the process of galaxy nucleation
• Milky Way Satellite Census. I. The Observational Selection Function for Milky Way Satellites in DES Y3 and Pan-STARRS DR1
• The Pan-STARRS Data Processing System
• The formation and hierarchical assembly of globular cluster populations
• The discovery of two extremely low luminosity Milky Way globular clusters
• The last breath of the Sagittarius dSph
• High-Precision Dark Halo Virial Masses from Globular Cluster Numbers: Implications for Globular Cluster Formation and Galaxy Assembly
• Discovery of VVV CL001. A Low-Mass Globular Cluster Next to UKS~1 in the Direction of the Galactic Bulge
• The Globular Cluster - Dark Matter Halo Connection
• The inner structure and kinematics of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy as a product of tidal stirring
• The distance to the Sgr dwarf spheroidal galaxy from the Red Giant Branch Tip
• Three Galactic globular cluster candidates
• Origins of scaling relations of globular cluster systems
• New galactic star clusters discovered in the VVV survey. Candidates projected on the inner disk and bulge
• An all-sky proper motion map of the Sagittarius stream using Gaia DR2
• Dynamical friction in cuspy galaxies
• Metallicity gradients in the globular cluster systems of early-type galaxies: In-situ and accreted components?
• FSR 1716: A new Milky Way Globular Cluster confirmed using VVV RR Lyrae stars
• Fossil stellar streams and their globular cluster populations in the E-MOSAICS simulations
• Analysis of the physical nature of 22 New VVV Survey Globular Cluster candidates in the Milky Way Bulge
• Hundreds of new cluster candidates in the VISTA variables in the Via Lactea survey DR1
• APOGEE spectroscopic evidence for chemical anomalies in dwarf galaxies: The case of M~54 and Sagittarius
• Confirmation and physical characterization of the new bulge globular cluster Patchick 99 from the VVV and Gaia surveys
• Discovery of new globular clusters in the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy
• VISTA's view of the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy and southern Galactic Bulge
• Dating the tidal disruption of globular clusters with Gaia data on their stellar streams

Cited by in corpus (11)

• The Chemo-Dynamical Groups of Galactic Globular Clusters
• The VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea eXtended (VVVX) ESO public survey: Completion of the observations and legacy
• Classifying globular clusters and applying them to estimate the mass of the Milky Way
• A new low-luminosity globular cluster discovered in the Milky Way with the VVVX survey
• On the Reionization-Era Globular Cluster in Low-Mass Galaxy Eridanus II
• The Dark Matter Halo of M54
• Extra-tidal star candidates in globular clusters of the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy
• On the gamma-ray emission from the core of the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy
• Globular cluster candidates in the Sagittarius dwarf galaxy
• Consensus based Algorithm for Nonparametric Detection of Star Clusters (CANDiSC)
• Spectroscopic analysis of VVV CL001 cluster with MUSE