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Paper: The fate of dwarf satellite galaxies (or: Can we observe soft merging?)
Volume: 209, Small Galaxy Groups, IAU Colloquium 174
Page: 121
Authors: Richter, G.; Vennik, J.; Böhm, P.; Capaccioli, M.
Abstract: Dwarf satellite galaxies and globular clusters bound to luminous (in particular early type) galaxies, can be steered by interactions to orbits penetrating deep into the potential of their parent galaxy, where the outer stars are eroded and the dwarf satellite is completely destroyed in a relatively short time, resulting in very faint disturbances (soft merging) in the form of faint rings in the parent galaxy. With special image processing methods we have found faint structures in E and S0 galaxies, which for many reasons (mass, statistics, etc.) can be interpreted as observational evidence of this type of soft merging. This debris of dwarf satellites can provide a considerable part of the mass of the parent galaxy.
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