Deep SOAR follow-up photometry of two Milky Way outer-halo companions discovered with Dark Energy Survey

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery and detailed analysis of two faint stellar systems in the Milky Way's outer halo, using DES data and follow-up observations, revealing new star clusters and refining their properties.

Contribution

It presents the discovery of a new faint star cluster DES 3 and provides the first detailed characterization of the satellite DES J0222.7-5217, enhancing understanding of the Milky Way's satellite population.

Findings

DES 3 is a compact, old, and metal-poor star cluster at ~76 kpc.

DES J0222.7-5217 is likely a faint star cluster with an age of ~12.6 Gyr.

Both systems are among the smallest and faintest known stellar systems in the Milky Way halo.

Abstract

We report the discovery of a new star cluster, DES 3, in the constellation of Indus, and deeper observations of the previously identified satellite DES J0222.7$-$5217 (Eridanus III). DES 3 was detected as a stellar overdensity in first-year Dark Energy Survey data, and confirmed with deeper photometry from the 4.1 metre Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) telescope. The new system was detected with a relatively high significance and appears in the DES images as a compact concentration of faint blue point sources. We determine that DES 3 is located at a heliocentric distance of $\sim 76\,\mathrm{kpc}$ and it is dominated by an old ($\simeq 9.8\,\mathrm{Gyr}$) and metal-poor ($\mathrm{[Fe/H]}\simeq -1.88$) population. While the age and metallicity values of DES 3 are similar to globular clusters, its half-light radius ($r_\mathrm{h}\sim 6.5\,\mathrm{pc}$) and luminosity ($M_V \sim -1.9$) are more indicative of faint star clusters. Based on the apparent angular size, DES 3, with a value of $r_\mathrm{h}\sim 0.\!^{\prime}3$, is among the smallest faint star clusters known to date. Furthermore, using deeper imaging of DES J0222.7$-$5217 taken with the SOAR telescope, we update structural parameters and perform the first isochrone modeling. Our analysis yields the first age ($\simeq 12.6\,\mathrm{Gyr}$) and metallicity ($\mathrm{[Fe/H]}\simeq -2.01$) estimates for this object. The half-light radius ($r_\mathrm{h}\sim 10.5\,\mathrm{pc}$) and luminosity ($M_V\sim -2.7$) of DES J0222.7$-$5217 suggest that it is likely a faint star cluster. The discovery of DES 3 indicates that the census of stellar systems in the Milky Way is still far from complete, and demonstrates the power of modern wide-field imaging surveys to improve our knowledge of the Galaxy's satellite population.