Searching for RR Lyrae stars in the Canis Major overdensity

The Canis Major overdensity (CMa) was initially proposed to be the remnant of a tidally disrupting dSph galaxy. Since its nature is still subject of debate, the goal of the present work was to conduct a large-scale RR Lyrae survey in CMa, in order to see if there is an overdensity of these stars. Th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inProceedings of the International Astronomical Union Vol. 2; no. S241; pp. 359 - 360
Main Authors Mateu, C., Vivas, K., Zinn, R., Miller, L.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.12.2006
Subjects
Astronomy
Contributed Papers
Spectrum analysis
Star & galaxy formation
Galaxy: structure
Galaxy: stellar content
stars: variables: RR Lyrae
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Summary:The Canis Major overdensity (CMa) was initially proposed to be the remnant of a tidally disrupting dSph galaxy. Since its nature is still subject of debate, the goal of the present work was to conduct a large-scale RR Lyrae survey in CMa, in order to see if there is an overdensity of these stars. The survey spans a total area of ∼ 34 sq. deg. with observations in V and R filters, made with the 1.0m Jürgen Stock Schmidt telescope at the National Astronomical Observatory of Venezuela. Current results in a subregion, including spectroscopic observations, show that the small number of RR Lyrae stars found can be accounted for by the halo and thick disk components of our Galaxy.
Bibliography:SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
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ISSN:1743-9213
1743-9221
DOI:10.1017/S1743921307008459