Related papers: A kinematic study of the Andromeda dwarf spheroida…

Stellar kinematics and metallicity are key to exploring formation scenarios for galactic disks and halos. In this work, we characterized the relationship between kinematics and photometric metallicity along the line-of-sight to M31's disk.…

We build a statistical framework to infer the global properties of the satellite system of the Andromeda galaxy (M31) from the properties of individual dwarf galaxies located in the Pan-Andromeda Archaelogical Survey (PAndAS) and the…

We model three dSph galaxies, Draco, Ursa Minor and Fornax, as axisymmetric stellar systems embedded in spherical dark-matter potentials, which are in dynamical equilibrium without significant external tidal forces. We construct…

We present the velocity dispersion of red giant branch (RGB) stars in M31's halo, derived by modeling the line of sight velocity distribution of over 5000 stars in 50 fields spread throughout M31's stellar halo. The dataset was obtained as…

The Milky Way satellite dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies are the smallest dark matter dominated systems in the universe. We have underway dynamical studies of the dSph to quantify the shortest scale lengths on which Dark Matter is…

We investigate the mass distributions within eight classical Milky Way dwarf spheroidal galaxies (MW dSphs) using an equilibrium Jeans analysis and we compare our results to the mass distributions predicted for subhalos in dissipationless…

Thanks to instrumental advances, new, very large kinematic datasets for nearby dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies are on the horizon. A key aim of these datasets is to help determine the distribution of dark matter in these galaxies. Past…

The dwarf spheroidal (dSph) satellites of the Local Group have long been thought to be simple spheroids of stars embedded within extended dark matter halos. Recently, however, evidence for the presence of spatially and kinematically…

I review observational data on the kinematic properties of dwarf spheroidal galaxies in the halo of the Milky Way and beyond. The present data confirm previous claims that these galaxies have unusually large central velocity dispersions.…

The stars in the dwarf spheroidal satellite galaxies (dSphs) of the Milky Way are significantly more metal-poor than would be expected from a closed box model of chemical evolution. Gas outflows likely carried away most of the metals…

We use time-resolved spectra from the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) to examine the distribution of radial velocity (RV) variations in 249 stars identified as members of the Sagittarius (Sgr) dwarf…

We derive the star formation histories of eight dwarf spheroidal (dSph) Milky Way satellite galaxies from their alpha element abundance patterns. Nearly 3000 stars from our previously published catalog (Paper II) comprise our data set. The…

We report the discovery of NGC 253-dw2, a dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxy candidate undergoing tidal disruption around a nearby spiral galaxy, NGC 253 in the Sculptor group: the first such event identified beyond the Local Group. The dwarf…

The Andromeda galaxy (M31) shows many tidal features in its halo, including the Giant Southern Stream (GSS) and a sharp ledge in surface density on its western side (the W Shelf). Using DEIMOS on the Keck telescope, we obtain radial…

Due to their proximity, high dark-matter content, and apparent absence of non-thermal processes, Milky Way dwarf spheroidal satellite galaxies (dSphs) are excellent targets for the indirect detection of dark matter. Recently, eight new dSph…

We discover an extended distribution of main-sequence (MS) stars along the minor axis of the Ursa Minor (UMi) dwarf spheroidal galaxy (dSph). This study is enabled by deep, wide Subaru/Hyper Suprime-Cam data, reaching photometric…

We present low-resolution spectroscopy of 120 red giants in the Galactic satellite dwarf spheroidal (dSph) Leo I, obtained with the GeminiN-GMOS and Keck-DEIMOS spectrographs. We find stars with velocities consistent with membership of Leo…

Dwarf spheroidal galaxies are the most common type of galaxies, and are the most dark matter dominated objects in the Universe. Therefore, they are ideal laboratories to test any dark matter model. The Bose-Einstein condensate/scalar field…

The Sagittarius dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy (Sgr dSph) provides us with a unique possibility of studying a dwarf galaxy merging event while still in progress. Due to its low distance (25 kpc), the main body of Sgr dSph covers a vast area in the…

We present a spectroscopic survey of the giant stellar stream found in the halo of the Andromeda galaxy. Taken with the DEIMOS multi-object spectrograph on the Keck2 telescope, these data display a narrow velocity dispersion of 11+/-3 km/s,…