New Local Volume Dwarf Galaxy Candidates from the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys

TL;DR

This study used DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys to identify 67 new dwarf galaxy candidates near isolated galaxies within 12 Mpc, significantly expanding the local galaxy database and highlighting the prevalence of low surface brightness spheroidal dwarfs.

Contribution

The paper introduces a new method of identifying dwarf galaxy candidates using DESI data, increasing the known local galaxy population by 63%.

Findings

67 new dwarf galaxy candidates identified.

Approximately half are spheroidal low surface brightness dwarfs.

Local Volume database expanded by 63%.

Abstract

We undertook a search for new dwarf galaxies in the vicinity of relatively isolated nearby galaxies with distances $D < 12$ Mpc and stellar masses in the $2\times10^{11}-3\times10^8~M_{\odot}$ interval, using the data from the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys. Around the 46 considered Local Volume galaxies, $67$ new candidates for satellites of these galaxies were found. About half of them are classified as spheroidal dwarfs of low surface brightness. The new galaxies are included in the Local Volume database (LVGDB), which now contains 1421 objects, being 63% more than the Updated Nearby Galaxy Catalog.