Life at the Periphery of the Local Group: the kinematics of the Tucana Dwarf Galaxy

Understand

Dwarf spheroidal galaxies in the Local Group are usually located close to the Milky Way or M31.

• Currently, there are two clear exceptions to this rule, and the Tucana dwarf galaxy is the most distant at almost 1 Mpc from the Milky Way.
• Using the VLT/FORS2 spectrograph in multi-object mode we were able to measure the velocities of 23 individual Red Giant Branch stars in and around Tucana using the Ca triplet absorption lines.
• From this sample 17 reliable members have been identified.