VST-SMASH: the VST Survey of Mass Assembly and Structural Hierarchy

TL;DR

VST-SMASH is a comprehensive survey using the VLT Survey Telescope to detect faint tidal features around nearby galaxies, providing critical insights into galaxy formation and hierarchical assembly.

Contribution

It introduces a deep, multi-band optical survey targeting low surface-brightness features in local galaxies within 11 Mpc, aiming to be the definitive resource for stellar streams and tidal remnants.

Findings

Detection of faint tidal features around nearby galaxies

Establishment of a low surface-brightness limit for the survey

Comprehensive catalog of stellar streams in the Local Volume

Abstract

The VLT Survey Telescope Survey of Mass Assembly and Structural Hierarchy (VST-SMASH) aims to detect tidal features and remnants around very nearby galaxies, a unique and essential diagnostic of the hierarchical nature of galaxy formation. Leveraging optimal sky conditions at ESO's Paranal Observatory, combined with the VST's multi-band optical filters, VST-SMASH aims to be the definitive survey of stellar streams and tidal remnants in the Local Volume, targeting a low surface-brightness limit of $\mu \sim$ 30 mag arcsec$^{-2}$ in the g and r bands, and $\mu \sim$ 28 mag arcsec$^{-2}$ in the i band, in a volume-limited sample of local galaxies within 11 Mpc and the Euclid footprint.