Schedule Feb 17, 2012
Stellar Halos of Galaxies Beyond the Local Group
Jeremy Bailin (Univ. of Michigan)

We present Magellan/IMACS imaging of resolved RGB stars in the halos of 5 galaxies at distances of 2-4 Mpc. These data, in concert with overlapping HST/ACS fields, allow us for the first time to determine the global properties of halos of galaxies beyond the Local Group. We see evidence for significant galaxy-to-galaxy scatter in the mass of stellar halos, as well as significant substructure, both in agreement with model predictions. Finally, we note the importance of including the baryonic potential (i.e. stellar disks) in models of stellar halo formation in order to avoid factors-of-a-few systematic errors in the predicted amount of structure.


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