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SUMMARY:A Pilot Survey of Stellar Tidal Streams in Nearby Spiral Galaxies 
 - Dr. David Martinez-Delgado (Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias)
DTSTART:20090224T160000Z
DTEND:20090224T170000Z
UID:TALK17207@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Martin C. Smith
DESCRIPTION:Within the hierarchical framework for galaxy formation\, mergi
 ng and tidal interactions are expected to shape large galaxies  to this da
 y. While major mergers are quite rare at present\, minor mergers and satel
 lite disruptions - that result in stellar streams -  should be common\, an
 d are indeed seen in both the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy.\n\nAs a 
 pilot study\, we have carried out ultra-deep\, wide-field imaging of some 
 spiral galaxies in the Local Volume\, which has revealed external views of
  such stellar tidal streams at unprecedented sensitivity and detail\, with
  data taken at small robotic telescopes (0.1-0.5-meter) that provide exqui
 site surface brightness sensitivity.\n\nThe goal of our project is to unde
 rtake the first systematic and comprehensive imaging survey of stellar tid
 al streams for a sample of ~ 50 nearby Milky-Way-like spiral galaxies with
 in 15 Mpc\, with a surface brightness sensitivity of ~ 29-30 mag/arcsec^2.
  The survey will result in estimates of the incidence\, size/geometry and 
 stellar luminosity/mass distribution of such streams. This will not only t
 o put our Milky Way and M31 in context\, but also provide for the first ti
 me an extensive statistical basis for comparison with state-of-art\, self-
 consistent Lambda-CDM  cosmological simulations of this phenomenon.  The r
 esults of the project will provide a direct and stringent test of hierarch
 ical structure formation on this scale\, will constrain the present-epoch 
  (minor) interaction rate and probe the minor-merger resilience of stellar
  disks.\n\n
LOCATION:HCR\, IoA
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