Bibcode
Monelli, M.; Martínez-Vázquez, C. E.; Bernard, Edouard J.; Gallart, C.; Skillman, Evan D.; Weisz, Daniel R.; Dolphin, Andrew E.; Hidalgo, S. L.; Cole, Andrew A.; Martin, Nicolas F.; Aparicio, A.; Cassisi, Santi; Boylan-Kolchin, Michael; Mayer, Lucio; McConnachie, Alan; McQuinn, Kristen B. W.; Navarro, Julio F.
Referencia bibliográfica
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 819, Issue 2, article id. 147, 14 pp. (2016).
Fecha de publicación:
3
2016
Revista
Número de citas
29
Número de citas referidas
25
Descripción
Based on data aquired in 13 orbits of Hubble Space Telescope time, we
present a detailed evolutionary history of the M31 dSph satellite
Andromeda XVI, including its lifetime star formation history (SFH), the
spatial distribution of its stellar populations, and the properties of
its variable stars. And XVI is characterized by prolonged star formation
activity from the oldest epochs until star formation was quenched ∼6
Gyr ago, and, notably, only half of the mass in stars of And XVI was in
place 10 Gyr ago. And XVI appears to be a low-mass galaxy for which the
early quenching by either reionization or starburst feedback seems
highly unlikely, and thus it is most likely due to an environmental
effect (e.g., an interaction), possibly connected to a late infall in
the densest regions of the Local Group. Studying the SFH as a function
of galactocentric radius, we detect a mild gradient in the SFH: the star
formation activity between 6 and 8 Gyr ago is significantly stronger in
the central regions than in the external regions, although the quenching
age appears to be the same, within 1 Gyr. We also report the discovery
of nine RR Lyrae (RRL) stars, eight of which belong to And XVI. The RRL
stars allow a new estimate of the distance, (m ‑ M)0 =
23.72 ± 0.09 mag, which is marginally larger than previous
estimates based on the tip of the red giant branch.
Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope,
obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by
the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under
NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with
program #13028.