News

Recent advances in deep dedicated imaging surveys over the past decade have uncovered a surprisingly large number of extremely faint low surface brightness galaxies with large physical sizes called ultra diffuse galaxies (UDGs) in clusters and, more recently, in lower density environments. As part of the MATLAS survey, a deep imaging large program at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), our team has identified 2210 dwarf galaxies, 59 (~3%) of which qualify as UDGs. Averaging over the survey area, we find ~0.4 UDG per square degree. They are found in a range of low to moderate density environments, although 61% of the sample fall within the virial radii of groups.

Continue reading “Ultra-Diffuse galaxies in the MATLAS low-to-moderate density fields”

Ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) are very low-surface brightness galaxies with large effective radii. Spectroscopic measurements of a few UDGs have revealed a low dark matter content, based on the internal motion of stars or globular clusters (GCs). This is in contrast to the large number of GCs found for these systems, from which it would be expected to correspond to a large dark matter halo mass. Here we present Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera Survey observations for the UDG MATLAS-2019 in the NGC5846 group of galaxies.

Continue reading “Dwarf galaxies in the MATLAS survey: Hubble Space Telescope observations of the globular cluster system in the ultra-diffuse galaxy MATLAS-2019”

It was first observed in the 1970s that the dwarf galaxies surrounding our Milky Way, so-called satellites, appear to be arranged in a thin, vast plane. Similar discoveries have been made around additional galaxies in the local Universe such as Andromeda, Centaurus A, and potentially M83. In the specific cases with available kinematic data, the dwarf satellites also appear to preferentially co-orbit their massive host galaxy. Planes of satellites are rare in the lambda cold dark matter (ΛΛCDM) paradigm, although they may be a natural consequence of projection effects. Such a phase-space correlation, however, remains difficult to explain. In this work we analyzed the 2D spatial distribution of 2210 dwarf galaxies around early-type galaxies (ETGs) in the low-to-medium density fields of the “Mass Assembly of early-Type GaLAxies with their fine Structures” (MATLAS) survey. 

Continue reading “Flattened structures of dwarf satellites around massive host galaxies in the MATLAS low-to-medium density fields”

We present a photometric study of the dwarf galaxy population in the low to moderate density environments of the MATLAS deep imaging survey. The sample consists of 2210 dwarfs, including 508 nucleated. We define a nucleus as a compact source that is close to the galaxy photocenter (within 0.5 ReRe) which is also the brightest such source within the galaxy’s effective radius. The morphological analysis is performed using a two-dimensional surface brightness profile modeling on the g-band images of both the galaxies and nuclei. 

Continue reading “Structure and morphology of the MATLAS dwarf galaxies and their central nuclei”

Context. A small fraction of early-type galaxies (ETGs) show prolate rotation, i.e. they rotate around their long photometric axis. In simulations, certain configurations of galaxy mergers are known to produce this type of rotation.
Aims. We investigate the association of prolate rotation and signs of (past) galaxy interactions among the observed galaxies.

Continue reading “Ubiquitous signs of interactions in early-type galaxies with prolate rotation”