DDO 68: A Flea with Smaller Fleas that on Him Prey

Journal
Date Issued
2016
Author(s)
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Ciotti, Luca
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Aloisi, Alessandra
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Cignoni, Michele
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DOI
Abstract
We present new photometry of the dwarf irregular galaxy DDO 68, one of the most metal-poor and least massive dwarfs, located in the Lynx-Cancer Void. The images were acquired with the Large Binocular Telescope in the g and r passbands and show unequivocally that DDO 68 has previously unknown stellar streams related to the accretion of at least two smaller companions: a flea with smaller fleas biting it, to put it in Jonathan Swift’s words (from Jonathan Swift’s On Poetry: a Rhapsody: So, naturalists observe, a flea/has smaller fleas that on him prey/and these have smaller still to bite em/and so proceed ad infinitum). Our data provide direct observational evidence of multiple galaxy merging occurring at very low galactic mass scales. We present the results of an N-body simulation of the interaction of three dwarf galaxies that reproduce well the main morphological features of DDO 68.
Volume
826
Issue
2
Start page
L27
Uri
Url
Issn Identifier
2041-8205
Ads BibCode
2016ApJ...826L..27A
Rights
open.access
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