List of stellar streams explained

This is a list of stellar streams. A stellar stream is an association of stars orbiting a galaxy. It was once a globular cluster or dwarf galaxy that has now been torn apart and stretched out along its orbit by tidal forces.[1] An exception in the list about Milky Way streams given below is the Magellanic Stream, composed of gas (mostly hydrogen), although in 2023 a population of stars has been described inside it.[2]

Local Group streams

Milky Way streams

Known streams in the Milky Way[3]
NameOriginMass
(solar masses)		Length
(light-years)		CompositionDiscovery year
Arcturus streamDefunct dwarf galaxyUnknownUnknownOld stars deficient in heavy elements1971
Magellanic StreamLarge and Small Magellanic Clouds200 million1 millionHydrogen gas1972
Sagittarius StreamSagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy100 million1 millionWide variety of stars1994
Helmi streamDefunct dwarf galaxy10—100 millionSeveral complete loops around the Milky WayOld stars deficient in heavy elements1999
Palomar 5 streamGlobular cluster Palomar 55,00030,000Old stars2001
Virgo streamDefunct dwarf galaxy30,0002001
Monoceros ringCanis Major Overdensity100 million200,000Intermediate age stars2002
Anticenter streamDefunct dwarf galaxyUnknown30,000Old stars2006
GD-1Globular clusterMetal-poor stars2006[4]
NGC 5466 stream
45 Degree tidal stream		Globular cluster NGC 546610,00060,000Very old stars2006[5] [6]
Orphan streamUnknown source (hence its name)Unknown[7] 20,000Old stars2006
Acheron streamGlobular cluster2007[8]
Boötes III streamEmbedded in, and possible progenitor of the Styx stream2007
Cocytus streamGlobular cluster2007
Lethe streamGlobular cluster2007
Styx streamDefunct dwarf galaxy (possibly Boötes III)2007
Cetus Polar StreamDefunct dwarf galaxyUnknownUnknownOld stars2009[9]
Aquarius StreamDefunct dwarf galaxyUnknown30,000Old stars2010
Lamost 1Disrupted globular cluster21,000Intermediate-age stars2015[10]
Phoenix StreamDisrupted globular clusterUnknown8,000Very old stars[11] [12] 2016[13]
S1 Streamdisrupted dwarf galaxy942017[14] [15]
Fimbulthul streamGlobular cluster Omega Centauri3182019[16]
Pisces-Eridanus streamdisrupted cluster or association2,0001,300very young (~120 Myr) nearby (260 - 870 light-years) stream[17] 2019 [18]
Nyx streamremnant of a disrupted dwarf galaxy — long-ago galaxy mergerabout 200 stars2020[19] [20]
Specterdisrupted ultra-faint dwarf galaxy2,00018,0002022[21]

Andromeda Galaxy streams

Known streams in the Andromeda Galaxy
NameOriginMass
(solar masses)		Length
(light-years)		CompositionDiscovery year
M31 Giant stellar stream
Andromeda NE stellar stream[22] 2004
Tidal Stream Northwest (Tidal Stream E and F)[23] 2009
Tidal Stream Southwest2009
East Cloud
North Spur
Stream A
Stream B
Stream C
Stream D

Streams beyond the Local Group

Due to new deeper sky surveys, such as the DESI Legacy Imaging Survey, a large number of streams are to be expected to be discovered in the future. An initial search in 2023 by Martínez-Delgado et al. searched 389 galaxies and found 89 candidates with stellar streams (22,9%). They plan to search about 3100 galaxies, which might yield hundreds of candidates. In the pasts less sensitive surveys such as SDSS were only able to detect the brightest stellar streams.[24]

Other known streams outside the Local Group
NameLocationOriginMass
(solar masses)		Length
(light-years)		CompositionCharacteristicsDiscovery year
Young Blue Tidal Stream[25] NGC 5128A gas fragment or
a dwarf galaxy		2002
NGC 4013[26] former dwarf satellite
with low inclination orbit		large looping structure2008
NGC 5907[27] low-mass satellite accretionmultiple surrounding loops2009
NGC 4651[28] satellite accretionnarrow jet-like structure and surrounding debris shell2010
NGC 3521satellite accretionjet-like structure and surrounding debris shell2010
NGC 7531satellite accretionsurrounding debris shell2010
NGC 1084satellite accretionthree giant disconnected plumes of similar width2010
NGC 4216satellite accretionongoing tidal disruption of satellite galaxies
seen as long tails extending from the progenitor satellite		2010
NGC 1055satellite accretionclear box shaped inner halo sprinkled with a plethora of coherent spikes2010
NGC 5291[29] galaxy interactiontwo separate tidal tails to the north and south?
petal of the sunflowerMessier 63 (NGC 5055)[30] dwarf satellite accretion4x1081979/2011
NGC 5387[31] satellite accretion6x10811.7 kpcyoung starsenhanced star formation, metal-poor2014
feather on the hatMessier 104 (NGC 4594)[32] major mergerextremely metal rich2021

See also

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. News: Schilling . Govert . Stellar streams are revealing their secrets . Sky & Telescope . January 12, 2022 . December 13, 2022.
  2. Chandra . Vedant &+ . 27 June 2023 . Discovery of the Magellanic Stellar Stream Out to 100 KPC . The Astrophysical Journal. 956 . 2 . 110 . 10.3847/1538-4357/acf7bf . 2306.15719 . free . 2023ApJ...956..110C .
  3. Ibata . Rodrigo . Gibson . Brad . amp . April 2007 . The Ghosts of Galaxies Past . Scientific American . 296 . 4 . 40–45 . 17479629 . 10.1038/scientificamerican0407-40 . 2007SciAm.296d..40I.
  4. Grillmair . C.J. . Dionatos . O. . amp . 2 May 2006 . Detection of a 63° cold stellar stream in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey . The Astrophysical Journal . 643 . 1 . L17–L20 . 10.1086/505111 . 0004-637X . astro-ph/0604332 . 2006ApJ...643L..17G. 8561289 .
  5. News: 1 June 2007 . Rings around the galaxy . Astronomy . 12 July 2019.
  6. Grillmair . C. J. . Johnson . R. . amp . The Detection of a 45° Tidal Stream Associated with the Globular Cluster NGC 5466 . 8 February 2006 . The Astrophysical Journal . 639 . 1 . L17–L20 . 10.1086/501439 . astro-ph/0602602 . 2006ApJ...639L..17G. 17925570 .
  7. Newberg . Heidi Jo . Willett . Benjamin A. . Yanny . Brian . Xu . Yan . amp . 5 February 2010 . The Orbit of the Orphan Stream . The Astrophysical Journal . 711 . 1 . 32–49 . 1001.0576 . 10.1088/0004-637X/711/1/32 . 2010ApJ...711...32N. 91177423 .
  8. Grillmair . C.J. . 5 March 2009 . Four new stellar debris streams in the galactic halo . The Astrophysical Journal . 693 . 2 . 1118–1127 . 2009ApJ...693.1118G . 0811.3965 . 10.1088/0004-637X/693/2/1118. 17328907 .
  9. Newberg . Heidi Jo . Yanny . Brian . Willett . Benjamin A. . amp . 10 July 2009 . Discovery of a new, polar-orbiting debris stream in the Milky Way stellar halo . The Astrophysical Journal . 700 . 2 . L61–L64 . 0906.3291 . 10.1088/0004-637X/700/2/L61 . 2009ApJ...700L..61N. 118395419 .
  10. Vickers . John J. . Smith . Martin C. . Hou . Yonghui . Wang . Yuefei . Zhang . Yong . amp . 23 December 2015 . LAMOST 1: A disrupted satellite in the constellation Draco . The Astrophysical Journal . 816 . 1 . L2 (5 pp) . 1512.05090 . 10.3847/2041-8205/816/1/L2 . 2016ApJ...816L...2V. 118542097 . free .
  11. Wan . Zhen . Lewis . Geraint F. . Li . Ting S. . Jeffrey D. . Simpson . Sarah L. . Martell . Daniel B. . Zucker . etal . 29 July 2020 . The tidal remnant of an unusually metal-poor globular cluster . Nature . 583 . 7818 . 768–770 . 1476-4687 . 10.1038/s41586-020-2483-6. 32728241 . 2007.14577 . 2020Natur.583..768W . 220845585 .
  12. Wan . J. M. Diederiky . 29 July 2020 . Observations of a star system called the Phoenix stellar stream offer the first evidence of vanished star clusters that had extremely low levels of heavy elements. Their remnants might cast light on the early assembly of the Milky Way. . News and views / Astronomy and astrophysics . Nature . 583 . 7818 . 768–770 . 1476-4687 . 10.1038/s41586-020-2483-6. 32728241 . 2007.14577 . 2020Natur.583..768W . 220845585 .
  13. Balbinot . E. . Yanny . B. . Li . T.S. . Santiago . B. . Marshall . J.L. . Finley . D.A. . Pieres . A. . Abbott . T.M.C. . Abdalla . F.B. . Allam . S. . Benoit-Lévy . A. . 6 . March 2016 . The Phoenix Stream: A cold stream in the southern hemisphere . Astrophysical Journal . en . 820 . 1 . 58 . 10.3847/0004-637X/820/1/58 . 1509.04283 . 2016ApJ...820...58B . 12590274 . 0004-637X . free .
  14. Myeong . G C . Evans . N W . Belokurov . V . Amorisco . N C . Koposov . S E . Halo substructure in the SDSS--Gaia catalogue: streams and clumps . Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society . Oxford University Press (OUP) . 475 . 2 . 2017-12-20 . 0035-8711 . 10.1093/mnras/stx3262 . 1537–1548. free . 1712.04071 .
  15. O’Hare . Ciaran A. J. . McCabe . Christopher . Evans . N. Wyn . Myeong . GyuChul . Belokurov . Vasily . Dark matter hurricane: Measuring the S1 stream with dark matter detectors . Physical Review D . 98 . 10 . 2018-11-07 . 2470-0010 . 10.1103/PhysRevD.98.103006 . 103006. 1807.09004 . 2018PhRvD..98j3006O .
  16. Web site: Malhan . Khyati . 23 April 2019 . Ghostly tributaries to our galaxy: Catastrophic tale of the most massive globular cluster of the Milky Way . Nature Research Astronomy Community . 12 July 2019.
  17. Curtis . Jason L. . Agüeros . Marcel A. . Mamajek . Eric E. . Wright . Jason T. . Cummings . Jeffrey D. . amp . August 2019 . TESS reveals that the nearby Pisces-Eridanus stellar stream is only 120 Myr old . The Astrophysical Journal . en . 158 . 2 . 77 . 10.3847/1538-3881/ab2899 . 1905.10588 . 2019AJ....158...77C . 0004-6256 . free.
  18. Meingast . Stefan . Alves . João . Fürnkranz . Verena . amp . February 2019 . Extended stellar systems in the solar neighborhood. II. Discovery of a nearby 120° stellar stream in Gaia DR2 . Astronomy & Astrophysics . en . 622 . L13 . 10.1051/0004-6361/201834950 . 1901.06387 . 2019A&A...622L..13M . 0004-6361 . free.
  19. News: ScitechDaily . Nyx: Stellar stream of stars discovered in Milky Way that originated in another galaxy . 8 July 2020.
  20. Necib . L. . Ostdiek . B. . Lisanti . M. . etal . 6 July 2020 . Evidence for a vast prograde stellar stream in the solar vicinity. . Nature Astronomy . 4 . 11 . 1078–1083 . 10.1038/s41550-020-1131-2. 1907.07190 . 2020NatAs...4.1078N . 197430957 .
  21. 10.3847/1538-4357/ac9b4b. A Ghost in Boötes: The Least-Luminous Disrupted Dwarf Galaxy . 2022 . Chandra . Vedant . Conroy . Charlie . Caldwell . Nelson . Bonaca . Ana . Naidu . Rohan P. . Zaritsky . Dennis . Cargile . Phillip A. . Han . Jiwon Jesse . Johnson . Benjamin D. . Speagle . Joshua S. . Ting . Yuan-Sen . Woody . Turner . The Astrophysical Journal . 940 . 2 . 127 . 2207.13717 . 2022ApJ...940..127C . 251134878 . free .
  22. Zucker . Daniel B. . Kniazev . Alexei Y. . Bell . Eric F. . Martinez-Delgado . David . Grebel . Eva K. . Rix . Hans-Walter . Rockosi . Constance M. . Holtzman . Jon A. . Walterbos . Rene A. M. . Ivezic . Zeljko . Brinkmann . J. . Brewington . Howard . Harvanek . Michael . Kleinman . S. J. . Krzesinski . Jurek . Lamb . Don Q. . Long . Dan . Newman . Peter R. . Nitta . Atsuko . Snedden . Stephanie A. . 6 . 10 August 2004 . A New Giant Stellar Structure in the Outer Halo of M31 . The Astrophysical Journal . 612 . 2 . L117–L120 . 10.1086/424706 . astro-ph/0401098. 2004ApJ...612L.117Z . 16057037 .
  23. Web site: New tidal streams found in Andromeda reveal history of galactic mergers . 12 July 2019.
  24. Martínez-Delgado . David . Cooper . Andrew P. . Román . Javier . Pillepich . Annalisa . Erkal . Denis . Pearson . Sarah . Moustakas . John . Laporte . Chervin F. P. . Laine . Seppo . Akhlaghi . Mohammad . Lang . Dustin . Makarov . Dmitry . Borlaff . Alejandro S. . Donatiello . Giuseppe . Pearson . William J. . 2023-03-01 . Hidden depths in the local Universe: The Stellar Stream Legacy Survey . Astronomy and Astrophysics . 671 . A141 . 10.1051/0004-6361/202245011 . 0004-6361. free . 2104.06071 . 2023A&A...671A.141M .
  25. Peng . Eric W. . Ford . Holland C. . Freeman . Kenneth C. . White . Richard L. . December 2002 . A Young Blue Tidal Stream in NGC 5128 . The Astronomical Journal . 124 . 6 . 3144–3156 . astro-ph/0208422 . 10.1086/344308. 2002AJ....124.3144P . 16642381 .
  26. Martinez-Delgado . David . Pohlen . Michael . Gabany . R. Jay . Majewski . Steven R. . Penarrubia . Jorge . Palma . Chris . 23 February 2009 . Discovery of a Giant Stellar Tidal Stream Around the Disk Galaxy NGC 4013 . The Astrophysical Journal . 692 . 2 . 955–963 . 0801.4657 . 10.1088/0004-637X/692/2/955. 2009ApJ...692..955M . 14957582 .
  27. Martinez-Delgado . David . Penarrubia . Jorge . Gabany . R. Jay . Trujillo . Ignacio . Majewski . Steven R. . Pohlen . Michael . 10 December 2008 . The Ghost of a Dwarf Galaxy: Fossils of the Hierarchical Formation of the Nearby Spiral Galaxy NGC 5907 . The Astrophysical Journal . 689 . 1 . 184–193 . 0805.1137 . 10.1086/592555. 2008ApJ...689..184M . 8387773 .
  28. Martinez-Delgado . David . Gabany . R. Jay . Crawford . Ken . Zibetti . Stefano . Majewski . Steven R. . Rix . Hans-Walter . Fliri . Jurgen . Carballo-Bello . Julio A. . Bardalez-Gagliuffi . Daniella C. . Penarrubia . Jorge . Chonis . Taylor S. . Madore . Barry . Trujillo . Ignacio . Schirmer . Mischa . McDavid . David A. . 7 September 2010 . Stellar Tidal Streams in Spiral Galaxies of the Local Volume: A Pilot Survey with Modest Aperture Telescopes . The Astronomical Journal . 140 . 4 . 962–967 . 1003.4860 . 10.1088/0004-6256/140/4/962. 2010AJ....140..962M . 43034946 .
  29. Médéric Boquien . 4 . Pierre-Alain Duc . Jonathan Braine . Elias Brinks . Ute Lisenfeld . Vassilis Charmandaris. amp. Polychromatic view of intergalactic star formation in NGC 5291. Astronomy & Astrophysics. 2007. 467 . 1. 93–106. 2007A&A...467...93B. 10.1051/0004-6361:20066692. astro-ph/0703002 . 5822678 .
  30. Chonis . Taylor S. . Martínez-Delgado . David . Gabany . R. Jay . Majewski . Steven R. . Hill . Gary J. . Gralak . Ray . Trujillo . Ignacio . 2011-11-01 . A Petal of the Sunflower: Photometry of the Stellar Tidal Stream in the Halo of Messier 63 (NGC 5055) . The Astronomical Journal . 142 . 5 . 166 . 10.1088/0004-6256/142/5/166 . 1109.0019 . 2011AJ....142..166C . 0004-6256. 2152/34376 . free .
  31. Beaton . Rachael L. . Martínez-Delgado . David . Majewski . Steven R. . D'Onghia . Elena . Zibetti . Stefano . Gabany . R. Jay . Johnson . Kelsey E. . Blanton . Michael . Verbiscer . Anne . 2014-08-01 . Cannibalization and Rebirth in the NGC 5387 System. I. The Stellar Stream and Star-forming Region . The Astrophysical Journal . 790 . 2 . 117 . 10.1088/0004-637X/790/2/117 . 0004-637X. 1312.0585 . 2014ApJ...790..117B .
  32. Martínez-Delgado . David . Román . Javier . Erkal . Denis . Schirmer . Mischa . Roca-Fàbrega . Santi . Laine . Seppo . Donatiello . Giuseppe . Jimenez . Manuel . Malin . David . Carballo-Bello . Julio A. . 2021-10-01 . A feather on the hat: tracing the giant stellar stream around the Sombrero galaxy . Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society . 506 . 4 . 5030–5038 . 10.1093/mnras/stab1874 . free . 0035-8711. 2106.04548 . 2021MNRAS.506.5030M .

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