Reticulum II

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Reticulum II
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
Constellation Reticulum
Right ascension 03h 35m 42.14s [1]
Declination −54° 2′ 57.1″ [1]
Distance 103  kly (31.6  kpc) [2]
Apparent magnitude  (V)17.4 [1]
Characteristics
Apparent size  (V)3.37′ × 3.64′ [1]
Notable featuresEnriched in r-process elements
Other designations
Reticulum  II, Reticulum 2 [1]

Reticulum II (or Reticulum 2) is a dwarf galaxy in the Local Group. Reticulum II was discovered in 2015 by analysing images from the Dark Energy Survey. It is a satellite of the Magellanic Clouds and was probably captured relatively recently. [3] Like other dwarf spheroidal galaxies, its stellar population is old: the galaxy was quenched before 11.5 billion years ago. [3]

Reticulum II is elongated, having a major/minor axis ratio of 0.6. The size is given by a half-light radius of 15 parsecs (pc). This is too large for it to be a globular cluster. The absolute magnitude (MV) of the galaxy is −2.7. The distance from Earth is about 30 kpc. [2] The galaxy contains some blue horizontal branch stars. Other features visible are a main sequence, and a main sequence turn off, and a red giant branch. [1] [4] It has an unusual enhancement of r-process elements, meaning that gold and europium are enriched in the brightest stars in the galaxy. [5] About 72% of its stars are enriched in r-process elements. [2] The implication of the unusual enrichment in elements heavier than zinc, is that the r-process is very rare, and only happened once in this galaxy, possibly by the collision of two neutron stars. [6]

Gamma rays mostly with energies between 2 and 10 GeV have been detected by the Fermi satellite. [7] The radiation from Reticulum II is more significant than that of other dwarf galaxy emissions. [8] However this finding has been contested. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Local Group</span> Group of galaxies that includes the Milky Way

The Local Group is the galaxy group that includes the Milky Way, where Earth is located. It has a total diameter of roughly 3 megaparsecs (10 million light-years; 9×1019 kilometres), and a total mass of the order of 2×1012 solar masses (4×1042 kg). It consists of two collections of galaxies in a "dumbbell" shape; the Milky Way and its satellites form one lobe, and the Andromeda Galaxy and its satellites constitute the other. The two collections are separated by about 800 kiloparsecs (3×10^6 ly; 2×1019 km) and are moving toward one another with a velocity of 123 km/s. The group itself is a part of the larger Virgo Supercluster, which may be a part of the Laniakea Supercluster. The exact number of galaxies in the Local Group is unknown as some are occluded by the Milky Way; however, at least 80 members are known, most of which are dwarf galaxies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dwarf spheroidal galaxy</span> Low-luminosity galaxy of old stars & little dust

A dwarf spheroidal galaxy (dSph) is a term in astronomy applied to small, low-luminosity galaxies with very little dust and an older stellar population. They are found in the Local Group as companions to the Milky Way and as systems that are companions to the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). While similar to dwarf elliptical galaxies in appearance and properties such as little to no gas or dust or recent star formation, they are approximately spheroidal in shape and generally have lower luminosity.

The Milky Way has several smaller galaxies gravitationally bound to it, as part of the Milky Way subgroup, which is part of the local galaxy cluster, the Local Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andromeda II</span> Dwarf spheroidal galaxy in the constellation Andromeda

Andromeda II is a dwarf spheroidal galaxy about 2.22 Mly away in the constellation Pisces. While part of the Local Group, it is not quite clear if it is a satellite of the Andromeda Galaxy or the Triangulum Galaxy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boötes I</span> Galaxy in the constellation Boötes

The Boötes Dwarf Galaxy is a galaxy discovered in 2006, which appears faint, with a luminosity of 100,000 L☉ and an absolute magnitude of –5.8. It lies about 197,000 light-years away in the constellation Boötes. This dwarf spheroidal galaxy appears to be tidally disrupted by the Milky Way Galaxy, which it orbits, and has two stellar tails that cross over to form a cross. Tidally disrupted galaxies usually only form one tail. The galaxy appears to be significantly elongated, with an ellipticity of ε = 0.68 ± 0.15.

Segue 1 is a dwarf spheroidal galaxy or globular cluster situated in the Leo constellation and discovered in 2006 by Sloan Digital Sky Survey. It is located at a distance of about 23 kpc from the Sun and moves away from the Sun with the velocity of about 206 km/s. Segue 1 has a noticeably elongated shape with the half-light radius of about 30 pc. This elongation may be caused by the tidal forces acting from the Milky Way galaxy if Segue 1 is being tidally disrupted now.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leo IV (dwarf galaxy)</span> Galaxy in the constellation Leo

Leo IV is a dwarf spheroidal galaxy situated in the Leo constellation, discovered in 2006 in the data obtained by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The galaxy is located at the distance of about 160 kpc from the Sun and moves away from the Sun with the velocity of about 130 km/s. It is classified as a dwarf spheroidal galaxy (dSph) meaning that it has an approximately round shape with the half-light radius of about 130 pc.

Canes Venatici II or CVn II is a dwarf spheroidal galaxy situated in the Canes Venatici constellation and discovered in 2006 in data obtained by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The galaxy is located at a distance of about 150 kpc from the Sun and moves towards the Sun with the velocity of about 130 km/s. It is classified as a dwarf spheroidal galaxy (dSph) meaning that it has an elliptical shape with a half-light radius of about 74+14
−10 pc.

Coma Berenices or Com is a dwarf spheroidal galaxy situated in the Coma Berenices constellation and discovered in 2006 in data obtained by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The galaxy is located at the distance of about 44 kpc from the Sun and moves away from the Sun with the velocity of about 98 km/s. It is classified as a dwarf spheroidal galaxy (dSph) meaning that it has an elliptical shape with the half-light radius of about 70 pc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hercules (dwarf galaxy)</span> Dwarf spheroidal galaxy in the constellation Hercules

Hercules, or Her, is a dwarf spheroidal galaxy situated in the Hercules constellation and discovered in 2006 in data obtained by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The galaxy is located at a distance of about 140 kpc from the Sun and moves away from the Sun with a velocity of about 45 km/s. It is classified as a dwarf spheroidal galaxy (dSph). It has a noticeably elongated shape with a half-light radius of about 350 pc. This elongation may be caused by tidal forces acting from the Milky Way galaxy, meaning that Her is being tidally disrupted now. Her also shows some gradient of velocities across the galaxy's body and is embedded into a faint stellar stream, which also points towards its ongoing tidal disruption.

Pisces II is a dwarf spheroidal galaxy situated in the Pisces constellation and discovered in 2010 in the data obtained by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The galaxy is located at the distance of about 180 kpc (kiloparsecs) from the Sun. It is classified as a dwarf spheroidal galaxy (dSph) meaning that it has an elongated shape with the half-light radius of about 60 pc and ratio of the axis of about 5:3.

The Pisces Overdensity is a clump of stars in the Milky Way's halo, which may be a disrupted dwarf spheroidal galaxy. It is situated in the Pisces constellation and was discovered in 2009 by analysis of distribution of RR Lyrae stars in the data obtained by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey's data. The galaxy is located at the distance of about 80 kpc from the Sun and moves towards it with a speed of about 75 km/s.

Triangulum II 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laevens 1</span> Galaxy in the constellation Crater

Laevens 1 is a faint globular cluster in the constellation Crater that was discovered in 2014. It is also known as Crater, the Crater cluster and PSO J174.0675-10.8774.

Crater 2 is a low-surface-brightness dwarf satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, located approximately 380,000 ly from Earth. Its discovery in 2016 revealed significant gaps in astronomers' understanding of galaxies possessing relatively small half-light diameters and suggested the possibility of many undiscovered dwarf galaxies orbiting the Milky Way. Crater 2 was identified in imaging data from the VST ATLAS survey.

The Eridanus II Dwarf is a low-surface brightness dwarf galaxy in the constellation Eridanus. Eridanus II was independently discovered by two groups in 2015, using data from the Dark Energy Survey. This galaxy is probably a distant satellite of the Milky Way. Eridanus II contains a centrally located globular cluster; and is the smallest, least luminous galaxy known to contain a globular cluster. Crnojević et al., 2016. Eridanus II is significant, in a general sense, because the widely accepted Lambda CDM cosmology predicts the existence of many more dwarf galaxies than have yet been observed. The search for just such bodies was one of the motivations for the ongoing Dark Energy Survey observations. Eridanus II has special significance because of its apparently stable globular cluster. The stability of this cluster, near the center of such a small, diffuse, galaxy places constraints on the nature of dark matter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antlia II</span> Low surface-brightness dwarf satellite galaxy of the Milky Way

Antlia II is a low-surface-brightness dwarf satellite galaxy of the Milky Way at a galactic latitude of 11.2°. It spans 1.26° in the sky just southeast of Epsilon Antliae. The galaxy is similar in size to the Large Magellanic Cloud, despite being 1/10,000 as bright. Antlia II has the lowest surface brightness of any galaxy discovered and is ~ 100 times more diffuse than any known ultra diffuse galaxy. The large size of the galaxy suggests that it is currently being tidally disrupted, and is in the process of becoming a stellar stream. The southeast side of Antlia II is farther away than the northwest side, likely due to the tidal disruption. It was discovered using data from the European Space Agency's Gaia spacecraft in November 2018.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Sergey E. Koposov; Vasily Belokurov; Gabriel Torrealba; N. Wyn Evans (10 March 2015). "Beasts of the Southern Wild. Discovery of a large number of Ultra Faint satellites in the vicinity of the Magellanic Clouds". The Astrophysical Journal. 805 (2): 130. arXiv: 1503.02079 . Bibcode:2015ApJ...805..130K. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/805/2/130. S2CID   118267222.
  2. 1 2 3 Simon, Joshua D.; et al. (2023). "Timing the r-process Enrichment of the Ultra-faint Dwarf Galaxy Reticulum II". The Astrophysical Journal. 944 (1): 43. arXiv: 2212.00810 . Bibcode:2023ApJ...944...43S. doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/aca9d1 . S2CID   254221028.
  3. 1 2 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.
  4. ↑ DES Collaboration (10 March 2015). "Eight New Milky Way Companions Discovered in First-Year Dark Energy Survey Data". The Astrophysical Journal. 807 (1): 50. arXiv: 1503.02584 . Bibcode:2015ApJ...807...50B. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/807/1/50. S2CID   12011753.
  5. ↑ Ji, Alex (22 March 2016). "The Origin of the Cosmos' Heaviest Elements". Phys.org. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  6. ↑ Ji, Alexander P.; Frebel, Anna; Chiti, Anirudh; Simon, Joshua D. (21 March 2016). "R-process enrichment from a single event in an ancient dwarf galaxy". Nature. 531 (7596): 610–613. arXiv: 1512.01558 . Bibcode:2016Natur.531..610J. doi:10.1038/nature17425. PMID   27001693. S2CID   205248401.
  7. ↑ Hooper, Dan; Linden, Tim (3 September 2015). "On The gamma-ray emission from Reticulum II and other dwarf galaxies". Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics. 2015 (9): 016. arXiv: 1503.06209 . Bibcode:2015JCAP...09..016H. doi:10.1088/1475-7516/2015/09/016. S2CID   118482641.
  8. ↑ Geringer-Sameth, Alex; Walker, Matthew G.; Koushiappas, Savvas M.; Koposov, Sergey E.; Belokurov, Vasily; Torrealba, Gabriel; Evans, N. Wyn (17 August 2015). "Indication of Gamma-Ray Emission from the Newly Discovered Dwarf Galaxy Reticulum II". Physical Review Letters. 115 (8): 081101. arXiv: 1503.02320 . Bibcode:2015PhRvL.115h1101G. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.081101. PMID   26340176. S2CID   16494335.
  9. ↑ Overbye, Dennis (10 March 2015). "Gamma Rays May Be Clue on Dark Matter". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 October 2016.
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