J/A+A/701/A182 Stellar tidal streams images (Martinez-Delgado+, 2025)
Stellar tidal streams around nearby spiral galaxies with deep imaging from
amateur telescopes.
Martinez-Delgado D., Stein M., Sakowska J.D., Weigelt M.M., Roman J.,
Donatiello J.R.G., Roca-Fabrega S., Schirmer M., E.K., Grebel,
Saifollahi T., Kanipe J., Gomez-Flechoso M.A., Akhlaghi M., Javanmardi B.,
Wu G., Eskandarlou S., Bomans D.J., Henkel C., Block A., Hanson M.,
Schedler J., Teuwen K., GaBany R.J., Ibanez Perez A., Crawford K.,
Promper W., Jimenez M., Farras-Aloy S., Miro-Carretero J.
<Astron. Astrophys. 701, A182 (2025)>
=2025A&A...701A.182M 2025A&A...701A.182M (SIMBAD/NED BibCode)
ADC_Keywords: Galaxies, nearby ; Optical
Keywords: methods: observational - galaxies: dwarf - galaxies: formation -
galaxies: halos - galaxies: interactions
Abstract:
Tidal interactions between massive galaxies and their satellites are
fundamental processes in a Universe with LAMBDA-Cold Dark Matter
(LAMBDACDM) cosmology, redistributing material into faint features
that preserve records of past galactic interactions. While stellar
streams in the Local Group impressively demonstrate satellite
disruption, they do not constitute a statistically significant sample.
Constructing a substantial catalog of stellar streams beyond the Local
Group remains challenging due to the difficulties in obtaining
sufficiently deep, wide-field images of galaxies. Despite their
potential to illuminate dark matter distribution and galaxy formation
processes overall, stellar streams remain underutilized as
cosmological probes. Aims. The Stellar Tidal Stream Survey (STSS)
addresses this observational gap by leveraging amateur telescopes to
obtain deep, scientific-grade images of galactic outskirts, capable of
building a more statistically meaningful sample of stellar streams.
Over the last decade, the STSS has acquired deep (up to surface
brightness limit ∼28.3mag/arcsec2 in the r-band) wide-field images
of 15 nearby Milky Way analog galaxies using a coordinated network of
robotic amateur telescopes, avoiding the issues associated with
"mosaicing" smaller images taken with a single, professional
telescope.
Our survey has revealed a diverse range of previously unreported faint
features related to dwarf satellite accretion -- including stellar
streams, shells,
The STSS demonstrates the suitability of modern amateur telescopes to
detect and study faint, diffuse structures in large fields around
nearby spiral galaxies. Their economic and accessibility advantages
enable larger statistical samples with deep imaging, essential for
testing galaxy formation models and constraining the frequency and
properties of minor merger events in the local Universe.
Description:
Here, we make the images available that were used in our analysis,
including wcs information (files end with _wcs.fits). For four
galaxies (NGC 150, ESO 545-5, NGC 1511, and NGC 2775) we provide an
additional data set (files end with _crop.fits). Files ending with
_wcs store the image information in the fits 0-extension also with
complete header information. Files ending with _crop where cropped
(using astcrop, as described in the paper) to avoid high background
noise regions. For these images, some of the original header
information is lost in the cropping process and the image information
is stored in the fits 1-extension.
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
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ReadMe 80 . This file
sources.dat 33 17 List of studied sources
list.dat 112 21 List of fits images
fits/* . 21 Individual fits images
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: sources.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 9 A9 --- Name Galaxy name
11- 12 I2 h RAh Right ascension (J2000)
14- 15 I2 min RAm Right ascension (J2000)
17- 21 F5.2 s RAs Right ascension (J2000)
23 A1 --- DE- Declination sign (J2000)
24- 25 I2 deg DEd Declination (J2000)
27- 28 I2 arcmin DEm Declination (J2000)
30- 33 F4.1 arcsec DEs Declination (J2000)
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Byte-by-byte Description of file: list.dat
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Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
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1- 9 F9.5 deg RAdeg Right Ascension of center (J2000)
10- 18 F9.5 deg DEdeg Declination of center (J2000)
20- 24 F5.3 arcsec/pix scale ? Scale of the image
26- 29 I4 --- Nx Number of pixels along X-axis
31- 34 I4 --- Ny Number of pixels along Y-axis
36- 54 A19 "datime" Obs.date Observation date
56- 60 I5 Kibyte size Size of FITS file
62- 79 A18 --- FileName Name of FITS file, in subdirectory fits
81-112 A32 --- Title Title of the FITS file
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Acknowledgements:
Michael Stein, mstein(at)astro.ruhr-uni-bochum.de
(End) Patricia Vannier [CDS] 01-Jul-2025