A second galaxy missing dark matter in the NGC1052 group [GA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1901.05973


The ultra-diffuse galaxy NGC1052-DF2 has a very low velocity dispersion, indicating that it has little or no dark matter. Here we report the discovery of a second galaxy in this class, residing in the same group. NGC1052-DF4 closely resembles NGC1052-DF2 in terms of its size, surface brightness, and morphology; has a similar distance of $D=19.9\pm 2.8$ Mpc; and has a similar population of luminous globular clusters extending out to 7 kpc from the center of the galaxy. Accurate radial velocities of seven clusters were obtained with the Low Resolution Imaging Spectrograph on the Keck I telescope. Their median velocity is $\langle v \rangle=1445$ km/s, close to the central velocity of 22 galaxies in the NGC1052 group. The rms spread of the observed velocities is very small at $\sigma_{\rm obs}=5.8$ km/s. Taking observational uncertainties into account we determine an intrinsic velocity dispersion of $\sigma_{\rm intr}=4.2^{+4.4}{-2.2}$ km/s, consistent with the expected value from the stars alone ($\sigma{\rm stars}\approx 7$ km/s) and lower than expected from a standard NFW halo ($\sigma_{\rm halo}\sim 30$ km/s). We conclude that NGC1052-DF2 is not an isolated case but that a class of such objects exists. The origin of these large, faint galaxies with an excess of luminous globular clusters and an apparent lack of dark matter is, at present, not understood.

Read this paper on arXiv…

P. Dokkum, S. Danieli, R. Abraham, et. al.
Mon, 21 Jan 19
5/50

Comments: Submitted to ApJ Letters