Related papers: Is Crater II disrupting?

Classical Cepheids (CCs) and RR Lyrae stars (RRLs) are important classes of variable stars used as standard candles to estimate galactic and extragalactic distances. Their multiplicity is imperfectly known, particularly for RRLs.…

We present the discovery of three new Milky Way satellites from our search for compact stellar overdensities in the photometric catalog of the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System 1 (Pan-STARRS 1, or PS1) 3pi survey. The…

We discuss the first part of a survey for RR Lyrae variables in the galactic halo that is being made with the 1m Schmidt telescope at the Venezuelan National Observatory. So far the survey has discovered 497 variables in 380 sq. degrees,…

We present a search for RR Lyrae stars using the full six-year data set from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) covering ~5,000 sq. deg. of the southern sky. Using a multi-stage multi-variate classification and light curve template-fitting…

The discovery of very distant stars in the halo of the Milky Way provides valuable tracers on the Milky Way mass and its formation. Beyond 100 kpc from the Galactic center, most of the stars are likely to be in faint dwarf galaxies or tidal…

We present results from MMT/Hectochelle spectroscopy of red giant candidate stars along the line of sight to the recently-discovered Galactic satellite Crater 2. Modelling the joint distribution of stellar positions, velocities and…

We search for RR Lyrae stars in 27 nearby ($<100$ kpc) ultra-faint dwarf satellite galaxies using the Gaia DR2 catalog of RR Lyrae stars. Based on proper motions, magnitudes and location on the sky, we associate 47 Gaia RR Lyrae stars to 14…

We analyze the resolved stellar populations of the faint stellar system, Crater, based on deep optical imaging taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. The HST/ACS-based color-magnitude diagram (CMD) of Crater extends $\sim$4 magnitudes below…

Laevens et al. recently discovered Triangulum II, a satellite of the Milky Way. Its Galactocentric distance is 36 kpc, and its luminosity is only 450 L_sun. Using Keck/DEIMOS, we measured the radial velocities of six member stars within…

Using photometry and proper motions from Gaia Data Release 2, we detect a 50 degree-long stream of about 70 stars extending westward from the halo globular cluster M5. Based on the similarities in distance, proper motions, inferred…

We are continuing a J, K and narrow-band imaging survey of 300 square degrees of the plane of the Galaxy, searching for new Wolf-Rayet stars. Our survey spans 150 degrees in Galactic longitude and reaches 1 degree above and below the…

We present a B, V color-magnitude diagram (CMD) of the Milky Way dwarf satellite Ursa Major II (UMa II), spanning the magnitude range from V ~ 15 to V ~ 23.5 mag and extending over a 18 {\times} 18 arcmin2 area centered on the galaxy. Our…

We present a survey for RR Lyrae stars in an area of 50 deg$^2$ around the globular cluster $\omega$ Centauri, aimed to detect debris material from the alleged progenitor galaxy of the cluster. We detected 48 RR Lyrae stars of which only 11…

A CCD VI imaging time-series over 11-year is employed to explore the light curves of stars in the field of Palomar 2. We discovered 20 RRab and 1 RRc variables. A revision of Gaia-DR3 data enabled us to identify 10 more variables and…

The latest results of the QUEST survey for RR Lyrae stars are described. This survey, which is designed to find and characterize sub-structures in the halo of our Galaxy, has covered about 700 square degrees of the sky and has detected 693…

We report the discovery of two ultra-faint satellites in the vicinity of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) in data from the Magellanic Satellites Survey (MagLiteS). Situated 18$^{\circ}$ ($\sim 20$ kpc) from the LMC and separated from each…

Within a 200 pc sphere around the Sun we search for the Hyades tidal tails in the Gaia DR2 dataset. We use a modified convergent point method to search for stars with space velocities close to the space velocity of the Hyades cluster. We…

The unusually low velocity dispersion and large size of Crater II pose a challenge to our understanding of dwarf galaxies in the Lambda Cold Dark Matter (LCDM) cosmogony. The low velocity dispersion suggests either a dark halo mass much…

We report the result of our near-infrared survey of short-period variable stars (P<60d) in a field-of-view of 20'x30' towards the Galactic Centre. Forty-five variables are discovered and we classify the variables based on their light curve…

We present the results of a massive variability search based on a photometric survey of a six square degree region along the Galactic plane at ($l = 305^\circ$, $b = -0.8^\circ$) and ($l = 330^\circ$, $b = -2.5^\circ$). This survey was…