List of stellar streams

Last updated

Stellar streams in the Milky Way, discovered in 2007 Sig07-008.jpg
Stellar streams in the Milky Way, discovered in 2007

This is a list of stellar streams. A stellar stream is an association of stars orbiting a galaxy. It was once a globular cluster or dwarf galaxy that has now been torn apart and stretched out along its orbit by tidal forces. [1] An exception in the list about Milky Way streams given below is the Magellanic Stream, composed of gas (mostly hydrogen), although in 2023 a population of stars has been described inside it. [2]

Contents

Local Group streams

Milky Way streams

Recent stellar streams on the Milky Way studied by the Southern Stellar Stream Spectroscopic Survey (S5 collaboration) using the Anglo-Australian Telescope (2022) Stellar streams 2022 S5survey.jpg
Recent stellar streams on the Milky Way studied by the Southern Stellar Stream Spectroscopic Survey (S⁵ collaboration) using the Anglo-Australian Telescope (2022)
Known streams in the Milky Way [5]
NameOriginMass
(solar masses)
Length
(light-years)
CompositionDiscovery year
Arcturus stream Defunct dwarf galaxy UnknownUnknownOld stars deficient in heavy elements1971 [5]
Magellanic Stream Large and Small Magellanic Clouds 200 million1 millionHydrogen gas1972
Sagittarius Stream Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy 100 million1 millionWide variety of stars1994
Helmi stream Defunct dwarf galaxy 10—100 millionSeveral complete loops around the Milky WayOld stars deficient in heavy elements1999
Palomar 5 stream (Serpens Stream) Globular cluster Palomar 5 5,00030,000Old stars2001
Virgo stream Defunct dwarf galaxy 30,0002001
Monoceros ring Canis Major Overdensity 100 million200,000Intermediate age stars2002
Anticenter stream Defunct dwarf galaxy Unknown30,000Old stars2006
GD-1 Globular cluster Metal-poor stars2006 [6]
NGC 5466 stream
45 Degree tidal stream
Globular cluster NGC 5466 10,00060,000Very old stars2006 [7] [8]
Orphan stream Unknown source (hence its name)Unknown [9] 20,000Old stars2006
Acheron stream Globular cluster 2007 [7] [10]
Boötes III stream Embedded in, and possible progenitor of the Styx stream2007 [7] [10]
Cocytus stream Globular cluster 2007 [7] [10]
Lethe stream Globular cluster 2007 [10]
Styx stream Defunct dwarf galaxy (possibly Boötes III)2007 [7] [10]
Cetus Polar Stream Defunct dwarf galaxy UnknownUnknownOld stars2009 [11]
Aquarius Stream Defunct dwarf galaxy Unknown30,000Old stars2010
Lamost 1 Disrupted globular cluster 21,000Intermediate-age stars2015 [12]
Phoenix Stream Disrupted globular cluster Unknown8,000Very old stars [13] [14] 2016 [15]
S1 Streamdisrupted dwarf galaxy 942017 [16] [17]
Fimbulthul stream Globular cluster Omega Centauri 3182019 [18]
Pisces-Eridanus stream disrupted cluster or association 2,0001,300very young (~120 Myr) nearby (260 - 870 light-years) stream [19] 2019 [20]
Nyx stream remnant of a disrupted dwarf galaxy — long-ago galaxy mergerabout 200 stars2020 [21] [22]
Specterdisrupted ultra-faint dwarf galaxy 2,00018,0002022 [23]

Andromeda Galaxy streams

Known streams in the Andromeda Galaxy
NameOriginMass
(solar masses)
Length
(light-years)
CompositionDiscovery year
M31 Giant stellar stream[ citation needed ]
Andromeda NE stellar stream [24] 2004
Tidal Stream Northwest (Tidal Stream E and F) [25] disrupted dwarf galaxies2009
Tidal Stream Southwest [25] 2009
East Cloud[ citation needed ]
North Spur[ citation needed ]
Stream A[ citation needed ]
Stream B[ citation needed ]
Stream C[ citation needed ]
Stream D[ citation needed ]

Streams beyond the Local Group

NGC 5387 with its stellar stream NGC 5387 legacy dr10.jpg
NGC 5387 with its stellar stream

Due to new deeper sky surveys, such as the DESI Legacy Imaging Survey, a large number of streams are to be expected to be discovered in the future. An initial search in 2023 by Martínez-Delgado et al. searched 389 galaxies and found 89 candidates with stellar streams (22,9%). They plan to search about 3100 galaxies, which might yield hundreds of candidates. In the pasts less sensitive surveys such as SDSS were only able to detect the brightest stellar streams. [26]

Other known streams outside the Local Group
NameLocationOriginMass
(solar masses)
Length
(light-years)
CompositionCharacteristicsDiscovery year
Young Blue Tidal Stream [27] NGC 5128 A gas fragment or
a dwarf galaxy
2002
stream 947-4966 NGC 4013 [28] former dwarf satellite
with low inclination orbit
large looping structure2008
9477-J0949.4-STO 749988 (SMS J 4977449 tI947) NGC 5907 [29] low-mass satellite accretionmultiple surrounding loops2009
NGC 4651 [30] satellite accretionnarrow jet-like structure and surrounding debris shell2010
NGC 3521 [30] satellite accretionjet-like structure and surrounding debris shell2010
NGC 7531 [30] satellite accretionsurrounding debris shell2010
NGC 1084 [30] satellite accretionthree giant disconnected plumes of similar width2010
NGC 4216 [30] satellite accretionongoing tidal disruption of satellite galaxies
seen as long tails extending from the progenitor satellite
2010
NGC 1055 [30] satellite accretionclear box shaped inner halo sprinkled with a plethora of coherent spikes2010
NGC 5291 [31] galaxy interactiontwo separate tidal tails to the north and south?
petal of the sunflower Messier 63 (NGC 5055) [32] dwarf satellite accretion4x1081979/2011
NGC 5387 [33] satellite accretion6x10811.7 kpc young starsenhanced star formation, metal-poor2014
feather on the hat Messier 104 (NGC 4594) [34] major mergerextremely metal rich2021

See also

References

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  2. Chandra, Vedant &+ (27 June 2023). "Discovery of the Magellanic Stellar Stream Out to 100 KPC". The Astrophysical Journal. 956 (2): 110. arXiv: 2306.15719 . Bibcode:2023ApJ...956..110C. doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/acf7bf .
  3. Li, Ting S.; Ji, Alexander P.; Pace, Andrew B.; Erkal, Denis; Koposov, Sergey E.; Shipp, Nora; Da Costa, Gary S.; Cullinane, Lara R.; Kuehn, Kyler; Lewis, Geraint F.; Mackey, Dougal (2022-01-02). "S 5: The Orbital and Chemical Properties of One Dozen Stellar Streams". The Astrophysical Journal. 928 (1): 30. arXiv: 2110.06950 . Bibcode:2022ApJ...928...30L. doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ac46d3 . S2CID   238856998.
  4. "Twelve for dinner: The Milky Way's feeding habits shine a light on dark matter". Dunlap Institute. Retrieved 2022-01-17.
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  12. Vickers, John J.; Smith, Martin C.; Hou, Yonghui; Wang, Yuefei & Zhang, Yong (23 December 2015). "LAMOST 1: A disrupted satellite in the constellation Draco". The Astrophysical Journal. 816 (1): L2 (5 pp). arXiv: 1512.05090 . Bibcode:2016ApJ...816L...2V. doi: 10.3847/2041-8205/816/1/L2 . S2CID   118542097.
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  17. O’Hare, Ciaran A. J.; McCabe, Christopher; Evans, N. Wyn; Myeong, GyuChul; Belokurov, Vasily (2018-11-07). "Dark matter hurricane: Measuring the S1 stream with dark matter detectors". Physical Review D. 98 (10): 103006. arXiv: 1807.09004 . Bibcode:2018PhRvD..98j3006O. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.98.103006. ISSN   2470-0010.
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  21. "Nyx: Stellar stream of stars discovered in Milky Way that originated in another galaxy". ScitechDaily. 8 July 2020.
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  23. Chandra, Vedant; Conroy, Charlie; Caldwell, Nelson; Bonaca, Ana; Naidu, Rohan P.; Zaritsky, Dennis; Cargile, Phillip A.; Han, Jiwon Jesse; Johnson, Benjamin D.; Speagle, Joshua S.; Ting, Yuan-Sen; Woody, Turner (2022). "A Ghost in Boötes: The Least-Luminous Disrupted Dwarf Galaxy". The Astrophysical Journal. 940 (2): 127. arXiv: 2207.13717 . Bibcode:2022ApJ...940..127C. doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ac9b4b . S2CID   251134878.
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  27. Peng, Eric W.; Ford, Holland C.; Freeman, Kenneth C.; White, Richard L. (December 2002). "A Young Blue Tidal Stream in NGC 5128". The Astronomical Journal. 124 (6): 3144–3156. arXiv: astro-ph/0208422 . Bibcode:2002AJ....124.3144P. doi:10.1086/344308. S2CID   16642381.
  28. Martinez-Delgado, David; Pohlen, Michael; Gabany, R. Jay; Majewski, Steven R.; Penarrubia, Jorge; Palma, Chris (23 February 2009). "Discovery of a Giant Stellar Tidal Stream Around the Disk Galaxy NGC 4013". The Astrophysical Journal. 692 (2): 955–963. arXiv: 0801.4657 . Bibcode:2009ApJ...692..955M. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/692/2/955. S2CID   14957582.
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  30. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Martinez-Delgado, David; Gabany, R. Jay; Crawford, Ken; Zibetti, Stefano; Majewski, Steven R.; Rix, Hans-Walter; Fliri, Jurgen; Carballo-Bello, Julio A.; Bardalez-Gagliuffi, Daniella C.; Penarrubia, Jorge; Chonis, Taylor S.; Madore, Barry; Trujillo, Ignacio; Schirmer, Mischa; McDavid, David A. (7 September 2010). "Stellar Tidal Streams in Spiral Galaxies of the Local Volume: A Pilot Survey with Modest Aperture Telescopes". The Astronomical Journal. 140 (4): 962–967. arXiv: 1003.4860 . Bibcode:2010AJ....140..962M. doi:10.1088/0004-6256/140/4/962. S2CID   43034946.
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  32. Chonis, Taylor S.; Martínez-Delgado, David; Gabany, R. Jay; Majewski, Steven R.; Hill, Gary J.; Gralak, Ray; Trujillo, Ignacio (2011-11-01). "A Petal of the Sunflower: Photometry of the Stellar Tidal Stream in the Halo of Messier 63 (NGC 5055)". The Astronomical Journal. 142 (5): 166. arXiv: 1109.0019 . Bibcode:2011AJ....142..166C. doi:10.1088/0004-6256/142/5/166. hdl: 2152/34376 . ISSN   0004-6256.
  33. Beaton, Rachael L.; Martínez-Delgado, David; Majewski, Steven R.; D'Onghia, Elena; Zibetti, Stefano; Gabany, R. Jay; Johnson, Kelsey E.; Blanton, Michael; Verbiscer, Anne (2014-08-01). "Cannibalization and Rebirth in the NGC 5387 System. I. The Stellar Stream and Star-forming Region". The Astrophysical Journal. 790 (2): 117. arXiv: 1312.0585 . Bibcode:2014ApJ...790..117B. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/790/2/117. ISSN   0004-637X.
  34. Martínez-Delgado, David; Román, Javier; Erkal, Denis; Schirmer, Mischa; Roca-Fàbrega, Santi; Laine, Seppo; Donatiello, Giuseppe; Jimenez, Manuel; Malin, David; Carballo-Bello, Julio A. (2021-10-01). "A feather on the hat: tracing the giant stellar stream around the Sombrero galaxy". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 506 (4): 5030–5038. arXiv: 2106.04548 . Bibcode:2021MNRAS.506.5030M. doi: 10.1093/mnras/stab1874 . ISSN   0035-8711.

Further reading