Related papers: The Faintest Dwarf Galaxies
Over the past five years, searches in Sloan Digital Sky Survey data have more than doubled the number of known dwarf satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, and have revealed a population of ultra-faint galaxies with luminosities smaller than…
We present early results from a Hubble Space Telescope survey of the ultra-faint dwarf galaxies. These Milky Way satellites were discovered in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and appear to be an extension of the classical dwarf spheroidals to…
We investigate the nature of Ultra Faint dwarf spheroidal galaxies (UF dSphs) in a general cosmological context, simultaneously accounting for various "classical" dSphs and Milky Way (MW) properties, including their Metallicity Distribution…
We investigate the formation and observable properties of faint satellite galaxies (M$_\rm V > -3$) in Milky Way-like halos using the semi-analytic galaxy formation model Galacticus. The ability of the smallest dark matter halos to form…
The Milky Way is surrounded by dozens of ultra-faint (< $10^5$ solar luminosities) dwarf satellite galaxies. They are the surviving remnants of the earliest galaxies, as confirmed by their ancient (~13 billion years old) and chemically…
The dwarf galaxy companions to the Milky Way are unique cosmological laboratories. With luminosities as low as 10^-7 L_MW, they inhabit the lowest mass dark matter halos known to host stars and are presently the most direct tracers of the…
Our knowledge about the chemical evolution of the more luminous dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies is constantly growing. However, little is known about the enrichment of the ultrafaint systems recently discovered in large numbers in large…
The Milky Way's dwarf spheroidal satellites include the nearest, smallest and least luminous galaxies known. They also exhibit the largest discrepancies between dynamical and luminous masses. This article reviews the development of…
We predict that there is a population of low-luminosity dwarf galaxies orbiting within the halo of the Milky Way that have surface brightnesses low enough to have escaped detection in star-count surveys. The overall count of stealth…
Our knowledge about the dynamics, the chemical abundances and the evolutionary histories of the more luminous dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies is constantly growing. However, very little is known about the enrichment of the ultra-faint…
The early chemical evolution of the Galaxy and the Universe is vital to our understanding of a host of astrophysical phenomena. Since the most metal-poor Galactic stars (with metallicities down to [Fe/H]\sim-5.5) are relics from the…
We derive the structural parameters of the recently discovered very low luminosity Milky Way satellites through a Maximum Likelihood algorithm applied to SDSS data. For each satellite, even when only a few tens of stars are available down…
Dwarf galaxies are the least massive, most abundant, and most widely distributed type of galaxies. Hence, they are key to testing theories of galaxy and Universe evolution. Dwarf galaxies sufficiently close to have their gas and stellar…
The discovery of Ultra-Faint Dwarf (UFD) galaxies in the halo of the Milky Way extends the faint end of the galaxy luminosity function to a few hundred solar luminosities. This extremely low luminosity regime poses a significant challenge…
We present Keck/DEIMOS spectroscopy of stars in 8 of the newly discovered ultra-faint dwarf galaxies around the Milky Way. We measure the velocity dispersions of Canes Venatici I and II, Ursa Major I and II, Coma Berenices, Hercules, Leo IV…
We investigate the nature of the newly discovered Ultra Faint dwarf spheroidal galaxies (UF dSphs) in a general cosmological context simultaneously accounting for various ``classical`` dSphs and Milky Way properties including their…
We present new constraints on the star formation histories of the ultra-faint dwarf (UFD) galaxies, using deep photometry obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). A galaxy class recently discovered in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey,…
Dwarf spheroidal galaxies are the smallest known stellar systems where under Newtonian interpretations, a significant amount of dark matter is required to explain observed kinematics. In fact, they are in this sense the most heavily dark…
We use a new set of cold dark matter simulations of the local universe to investigate the distribution of fossils of primordial dwarf galaxies within, and around the Milky Way. Throughout, we build upon previous results showing agreement…
The number and distribution of dwarf satellite galaxies remain a critical test of cold dark matter-dominated structure formation on small scales. Until recently, observational information about galaxy formation on these scales has been…