Open AccessMultiple stellar populations in the Sextans dwarf spheroidal galaxy?
Author(s) -
Bellazzini M.,
Ferraro F.R.,
Pancino E.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.04889.x
Subject(s) - physics , astrophysics , red giant branch , dwarf spheroidal galaxy , astronomy , dwarf galaxy , stellar population , giant star , rr lyrae variable , globular cluster , photometry (optics) , horizontal branch , surface brightness , galaxy , stars , star formation , interacting galaxy
We present wide‐field multiband ( BVI ) CCD photometry (down to of the very low surface brightness dwarf spheroidal galaxy Sextans. In the derived colour–magnitude diagrams we find evidence suggesting the presence of multiple stellar populations in this dwarf spheroidal. In particular, we discover (i) a blue horizontal branch tail that appears to lie on a brighter sequence with respect to the prominent red horizontal branch and the RR Lyrae stars, very similar to what was found by Majewski et al. for the Sculptor dwarf spheroidal, (ii) hints of a bimodal distribution in colour of the red giant branch stars, (iii) a double red giant branch bump. All of these features suggest that (at least) two components are present in the old stellar population of this galaxy: the main one with and a minor component around . The similarity to the Sculptor case may indicate that multiple star formation episodes are also common in the most nearby dwarf spheroidals that ceased their star formation activity at very early epochs.