Resonant stripping as the origin of dwarf spheroidal galaxies

Elena D'Onghia (), Gurtina Besla, Thomas J. Cox and Lars Hernquist
Additional contact information
Elena D'Onghia: Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Zurich
Gurtina Besla: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, MS 51, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
Thomas J. Cox: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, MS 51, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
Lars Hernquist: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, MS 51, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA

Nature, 2009, vol. 460, issue 7255, 605-607

Abstract: Galaxies stripped for action A new theory for the formation of dwarf spheroidal galaxies identifies encounters between dwarf disk galaxies and somewhat larger dwarfs as the likely source. Dwarf spheroids are dark-matter-dominated low luminosity galaxies in the nearby Universe and their origin is one of the outstanding puzzles of how galaxies form. Previous models are relevant only to dwarf spheroidals orbiting close to a giant galaxy like the Milky Way or Andromeda, and are ruled out as general theories because of the existence of dwarfs in the outskirts of the Local Group. In the new model simulations, encounters between dwarf galaxies in small groups excite a 'resonant stripping' process that transforms them into dwarf spheroidals before they are accreted by systems like the Milky Way. Within this framework, dwarf spheroidals should form and interact in pairs or small groups, leaving detectable long stellar streams and tails.

Date: 2009
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature08215 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:460:y:2009:i:7255:d:10.1038_nature08215

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature08215

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().