[142.01] Mapping the Accretion History of the Galaxy

AAS 205th Meeting, 9-13 January 2005
Session 142 Galactic Structure, Halo and High Velocity
Poster, Thursday, January 13, 2005, 9:20am-4:00pm, Exhibit Hall

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[142.01] Mapping the Accretion History of the Galaxy

S. N. Leitner, K. V. Johnston (Wesleyan University), J. S. Bullock (UC Irvine)

Galaxy formation is thought to result, in part, from dwarf satellite disruption. Indeed, many possible signatures of disruption events have been detected in the form of substructure in the Milky Way’s stellar halo; however, there is currently no systematic method for interpreting the properties of these features in terms of their accretion histories. Towards this end, we model dwarf galaxies accreting into a Milky Way potential and generate all-sky maps of disrupted debris. We then look for morphological characteristics in the maps that correlate with initial satellite properties. These characteristics could potentially be used to search for disrupted populations and to constrain the orbital parameters and mass of accreted dwarf galaxies.

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