Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Diverse Stellar Haloes In Nearby Milky Way Mass Disc Galaxies., Benjamin Harmsen, Antonela Monachesi, Eric F. Bell, Roelof S. De Jong, Jeremy Bailin, David J. Radburn-Smith, Benne W. Holwerda

Faculty Scholarship

We have examined the resolved stellar populations at large galactocentric distances along the minor axis (from 10 kpc up to between 40 and 75 kpc), with limited major axis coverage, of six nearby highly inclined MilkyWay (MW) mass disc galaxies using Hubble Space Telescope data from the Galaxy haloes, Outer discs, Substructure, Thick discs, and Star clusters (GHOSTS) survey. We select red giant branch stars to derive stellar halo density profiles. The projected minor axis density profiles can be approximated by power laws with projected slopes of −2 to −3.7 and a diversity of stellar halo masses of 1–6 × …