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Census of Northern Local Group Dwarf Galaxies using UNIONS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 October 2025

S. E. T. Smith*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, V8P 1A1, Canada
A. W. McConnachie
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, V8P 1A1, Canada NRC Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics, 5071 West Saanich Road, Victoria, BC, V9E 2E7, Canada
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Abstract

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In this work we present preliminary results from a systematic search for new Local Group dwarf galaxies in the deep, wide-field Ultraviolet Near-Infrared Optical Northern Survey (UNIONS). The first major result from this work is the discovery of a candidate ultra faint dwarf galaxy, Boötes V. This satellite of the Milky Way has a physical half-light radius of , an absolute V-band magnitude of −4.5 ± 0.4 mag, and resides at a heliocentric distance of approximately 100 kpc. We also announce the discovery of a faint, compact star cluster, UNIONS 1. The end goal of this work will be to put firm constraints on the detectability and completeness of Local Group dwarf galaxies given the broad sky coverage and excellent photometric depth of UNIONS.

Information

Type
Poster Paper
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of International Astronomical Union

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