Introducing the LBT Imaging of Galactic Halos and Tidal Structures (LIGHTS) survey. A preview of the low surface brightness Universe to be unveiled by LSST. (arXiv:2109.07478v1 [astro-ph.GA])

Introducing the LBT Imaging of Galactic Halos and Tidal Structures (LIGHTS) survey. A preview of the low surface brightness Universe to be unveiled by LSST. (arXiv:2109.07478v1 [astro-ph.GA])
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Trujillo_I/0/1/0/all/0/1">Ignacio Trujillo</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+DOnofrio_M/0/1/0/all/0/1">Mauro D'Onofrio</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Zaritsky_D/0/1/0/all/0/1">Dennis Zaritsky</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Madrigal_Aguado_A/0/1/0/all/0/1">Alberto Madrigal-Aguado</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Chamba_N/0/1/0/all/0/1">Nushkia Chamba</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Golini_G/0/1/0/all/0/1">Giulia Golini</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Akhlaghi_M/0/1/0/all/0/1">Mohammad Akhlaghi</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Sharbaf_Z/0/1/0/all/0/1">Zahra Sharbaf</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Infante_Sainz_R/0/1/0/all/0/1">Raul Infante-Sainz</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Roman_J/0/1/0/all/0/1">Javier Roman</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Morales_Socorro_C/0/1/0/all/0/1">Carlos Morales-Socorro</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Sand_D/0/1/0/all/0/1">David J. Sand</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Martin_G/0/1/0/all/0/1">Garreth Martin</a>

We present the first results of the LBT Imaging of Galaxy Haloes and Tidal
Structures (LIGHTS) survey. LIGHTS is an ongoing observational campaign with
the 2×8.4m Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) aiming to explore the stellar haloes
and the low surface brightness population of satellites down to a depth of
muV~31 mag/arcsec^2 (3 sigma in 10″x10″ boxes) of nearby galaxies. We
simultaneously collected deep imaging in the g and r Sloan filters using the
Large Binocular Cameras (LBCs). The resulting images are 60 times (i.e. ~4.5
mag) deeper than those from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), and they have
characteristics comparable (in depth and spatial resolution) to the ones
expected from the future Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). Here we show
the first results of our pilot programme targeting NGC1042 (an M33 analogue at
a distance of 13.5 Mpc) and its surroundings. The depth of the images allowed
us to detect an asymmetric stellar halo in the outskirts of this galaxy whose
mass (1.4+-0.4×10^8 Msun) is in agreement with the Lambda Cold Dark Matter
(LambdaCDM) expectations. Additionally, we show that deep imaging from the LBT
reveals low mass satellites (a few times 10^5 Msun) with very faint central
surface brightness muV(0)~27 mag/arcsec^2 (i.e. similar to Local Group dwarf
spheroidals, such as Andromeda XIV or Sextans, but at distances well beyond the
local volume). The depth and spatial resolution provided by the LIGHTS survey
open up a unique opportunity to explore the `missing satellites’ problem in a
large variety of galaxies beyond our Local Group down to masses where the
difference between the theory and observation (if any) should be significant.

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