Serendipitous discovery of a thin stellar stream near the Galactic bulge in the Pan-STARRS1 3π survey

Edouard J. Bernard, Annette M N Ferguson, Edward F. Schlafly, Mohamad Abbas, Eric F. Bell, Niall R. Deacon, Nicolas F. Martin, Hans Walter Rix, Branimir Sesar, Colin T. Slater, Jorge Peñarrubia, Rosemary F G Wyse, William S. Burgett, Kenneth C. Chambers, Peter W. Draper, Klaus W. Hodapp, Nicholas Kaiser, Rolf Peter Kudritzki, Eugene A. Magnier, Nigel MetcalfeJeffrey S. Morgan, Paul A. Price, John L. Tonry, Richard J. Wainscoat, Christopher Waters

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    37 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    We report the discovery of a thin stellar stream found in Pan-STARRS1 photometry near the Galactic bulge in the constellation of Ophiuchus. It appears as a coherent structure in the colour-selected stellar density maps produced to search for tidal debris around nearby globular clusters. The stream is exceptionally short and narrow; it is about 2.°5 long and 6 arcmin wide in projection. The colour-magnitude diagram of this object, which harbours a blue horizontalbranch, is consistent with an old and relatively metal-poor population ([Fe/H] ~-1.3) located 9.5 ± 0.9 kpc away at (l, b) ~ (5°, +32°), and 5.0 ± 1.0 kpc from the Galactic centre. These properties argue for a globular cluster as progenitor. The finding of such a prominent, nearby stream suggests that many streams could await discovery in themore densely populated regions of our Galaxy.

    Original languageEnglish
    JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
    Volume443
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 8 Jul 2014

    Keywords

    • Galaxy: halo
    • Galaxy: structure
    • Globular clusters: general
    • Surveys

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