The Proper Motion of Pyxis: the first use of Adaptive Optics in tandem with HST on a faint halo object

TL;DR

This study measures the proper motion of the faint halo globular cluster Pyxis using innovative adaptive optics combined with HST data, revealing its orbit and suggesting an origin in a now-disrupted galaxy.

Contribution

First measurement of Pyxis's proper motion using adaptive optics and HST, demonstrating the technique's effectiveness for faint, distant objects.

Findings

Pyxis has an eccentric orbit with apocenter >100 kpc and pericenter ~30 kpc.

Pyxis is unlikely associated with the ATLAS stream or Magellanic system.

Lower limit on Milky Way mass is 0.95×10^12 solar masses.

Abstract

We present a proper motion measurement for the halo globular cluster Pyxis, using HST/ACS data as the first epoch, and GeMS/GSAOI Adaptive Optics data as the second, separated by a baseline of about 5 years. This is both the first measurement of the proper motion of Pyxis and the first calibration and use of Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics data to measure an absolute proper motion for a faint, distant halo object. Consequently, we present our analysis of the Adaptive Optics data in detail. We obtain a proper motion of mu_alpha cos(delta)=1.09+/-0.31 mas/yr and mu_delta=0.68+/-0.29 mas/yr. From the proper motion and the line-of-sight velocity we find the orbit of Pyxis is rather eccentric with its apocenter at more than 100 kpc and its pericenter at about 30 kpc. We also investigate two literature-proposed associations for Pyxis with the recently discovered ATLAS stream and the Magellanic system. Combining our measurements with dynamical modeling and cosmological numerical simulations we find it unlikely Pyxis is associated with either system. We examine other Milky Way satellites for possible association using the orbit, eccentricity, metallicity, and age as constraints and find no likely matches in satellites down to the mass of Leo II. We propose that Pyxis probably originated in an unknown galaxy, which today is fully disrupted. Assuming that Pyxis is bound and not on a first approach, we derive a 68% lower limit on the mass of the Milky Way of 0.95*10^12 M_sun.