Discovery of a Rare Group of Dwarf Galaxies in the Local Universe

Autor: Sanjaya Paudel, Cristiano G. Sabiu, Suk-Jin Yoon, Pierre-Alain Duc, Jaewon Yoo, Oliver Müller
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2024
Předmět:
Zdroj: The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol 976, Iss 1, p L18 (2024)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2041-8213
2041-8205
DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad8f3c
Popis: We report the discovery of a rare isolated group of five dwarf galaxies located at z = 0.0086 ( D = 36 Mpc). All member galaxies are star forming, blue, and gas rich, with g − r indices ranging from 0.2 to 0.6 mag, and two of them show signs of ongoing mutual interaction. The most massive member of the group has a stellar mass that is half of the Small Magellanic Cloud stellar mass, and the median stellar mass of the group members is 7.87 × 10 ^7 M _☉ . The derived total dynamical mass of the group is M _dyn = 6.02 × 10 ^10 M _☉ , whereas its total baryonic mass (stellar + H i ) is 2.6 × 10 ^9 M _☉ , which gives us the dynamical to baryonic mass ratio of 23. Interestingly, all galaxies found in the group are aligned along a straight line in the plane of the sky. The observed spatial extent of the member galaxies is 154 kpc, and their relative line-of-sight velocity span is within 75 km s ^−1 . Using the spatially resolved optical spectra provided by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument early data release, we find that three group members share a common rotational direction. With these unique properties of the group and its member galaxies, we discuss the possible importance of such a system in the formation and evolution of dwarf galaxy groups and in testing the theory of large-scale structure formation.
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