Published in

Oxford University Press, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 4(343), p. 1335-1340, 2003

DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-8711.2003.06785.x

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The three-dimensional structure of the giant stellar stream in Andromeda

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

The wide-field CCD camera at the CFH telescope was used to survey the giant stellar stream in the Andromeda galaxy, resolving stars down the red giant branch in M31 to I ~ 25, a magnitude deeper than our previous INT survey of this galaxy and extending 1 degree further out. The stream is seen to extend out to the south-east of M31 as far as we have surveyed (some 4.5 degrees, corresponding to a projected distance ~60 kpc). It is a linear structure in projection, and the eastern edge of the stream presents a sharp boundary in star counts suggesting that it remains a coherent structure. By analysing the luminosity function of the metal rich component of the stream we find that, at the furthest extent of our survey, the stream is 100 kpc further away along the line of sight than M31. It can then be traced to a point on the north-western side of the galaxy where it is some 30 kpc in front of M31, at which point the stream turns away from our survey area. Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. A version with higher resolution figures and a larger figure 1 can be found at http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~alan/publications