Building Up the Globular Cluster System of the Milky Way: The Contribution of the Sagittarius Galaxy

By M. Bellazzini, F. Ferraro, R. Ibata. 2002

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We demonstrate that there is a clear statistical correlation between the (X, Y, Z, Vr) phase-space distribution of the outer halo Galactic globular clusters (having 10 kpc ≤ RGC ≤ 40 kpc) and the orbital path of the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy (Sgr dSph), as derived by Ibata & Lewis. At least four of the sample of 35 globular clusters in this distance range were formerly members of the Sagittarius galaxy (at the 95% confidence level) and are now distributed along the Sagittarius Stream, a giant tidal structure that surrounds the Milky Way. This is the first instance that a statistically significant structure associated with the Sgr dSph has been detected in the globular cluster population of the Galactic halo. Together with the four well-known globular clusters that are located near the center of this tidally disrupting dwarf galaxy, these clusters constitute ≳20% of the population of outer halo (RGC ≥ 10 kpc) clusters. The Sgr dSph was therefore not only an important contributor to the halo field-star population, but it also had a significant role in building up the globular cluster system of the Milky Way.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/9e7d69c5cb4d400fb9d8603a1198c956ebe048c0

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Citations in the corpus

ASSESSING THE MILKY WAY SATELLITES ASSOCIATED WITH THE SAGITTARIUS DWARF SPHEROIDAL GALAXY (2010, methodology): “Pal 12 (ID=53, Λ⊙ = 39 ◦) Pal 12 has been the subject of vigorous debate in recent years, and claims of possible association with the Sgr streams have been made by Mart́ınez-Delgado et al. (2002), Palma et al. (2002), Bellazzini et al. (2003ab), Majewski et al. (2004), and on the basis of full space”
The formation and assembly history of the Milky Way revealed by its globular cluster population (2018, background): “…associated with known satellites of the Galaxy.14 The most prominent of these satellites are the Sagittarius dwarf (NGC5634 and NGC6715, see Bellazzini et al. 2002, 2003; Law & Majewski 2010; Forbes & Bridges 2010) and the GCs formerly associated with the Canis Major ‘dwarf’ (NGC 1851, NGC…”
THE NUCLEUS OF THE SAGITTARIUS DSPH GALAXY AND M54: A WINDOW ON THE PROCESS OF GALAXY NUCLEATION (2008, background): “…galaxy (Ibata, Irwin & Gilmore 1994; Da Costa & Armandroff 1995; Montegriffo et al. 1998) and probably several others that have been stripped from the main body and are now associated with the Sgr Stream (Bellazzini, Ferraro & Ibata 2003a; Bellazzini et al. 2003b; Carraro, Zinn & Moni Bidin 2007).”
THE LEAST-LUMINOUS GALAXY: SPECTROSCOPY OF THE MILKY WAY SATELLITE SEGUE 1 (2008, background): “Previous claims of associated cluster systems (e.g. Bellazzini et al. 2003; Casetti-Dinescu et al. 2007) have focused only on relatively recent debris.”
Galactic stellar haloes in the CDM model (2009, background): “Support for this conclusion includes the presence of five globular clusters in the Fornax dwarf spheroidal (Hodge 1961) and the association of several Galactic clusters with the Sagittarius nucleus and debris (e.g. Layden & Sarajedini 2000; Newberg et al. 2003; Bellazzini et al. 2003).”
Globular Cluster System and Milky Way Properties Revisited (2005, background): “What emerges from this is an observational/theoretical picture of the formation and evolution of the stellar halo involving violent relaxation and accretion, one that is consistent with hierarchical models of galaxy formation (Bellazzini et al. 2003; Abadi et al. 2006).”
Accreted versus in situ Milky Way globular clusters (2010, background): “Since its initial discovery by Ibata, Gilmore & Irwin (1994), several GCs have been associated with the Sgr dwarf galaxy on the basis of their location in phase space compared to the predicted orbit of the dwarf (Bellazzini et al. 2003).”
A Two Micron All Sky Survey View of the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy. I. Morphology of the Sagittarius Core and Tidal Arms (2003, background): “…(e.g., Ibata et al. 2001b; Vivas et al. 2001; Newberg et al. 2002) and clusters (e.g., Irwin 1999; Dinescu et al. 2000, 2001; Palma et al. 2002; Bellazzini et al. 2002a, 2003) to the Galactic halo, which must also satisfy limits imposed by the distribution of properties for Galactic halo field…”
A Two Micron All Sky Survey View of the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy. II. Swope Telescope Spectroscopy of M Giant Stars in the Dynamically Cold Sagittarius Tidal Stream (2004, background): “Lynden-Bell & Lynden-Bell (1995) first suggested a potential association of this cluster with Sgr. Bellazzini et al. (2003a) also demonstrate a nice velocity match of this cluster to their Sgr orbit model, but the cluster lay almost 15 kpc in the orbital plane from the Sgr orbital path (see their Ta”