Abstract
Cosmological simulations and theories of galaxy formation predict that the Milky Way should be embedded in an extended hot gaseous halo or corona. To date, a definitive detection of such a corona in the Milky Way remains elusive. We have attempted to estimate the density of the Milky Way’s cosmological corona using the effect that it has on the surrounding population of dwarf galaxies. We have considered two dSphs close to the Galaxy: Sextans and Carina. Assuming that they have lost all their gas during the last pericentric passage via ram-pressure stripping, we were able to estimate the average density (n ∼ 2 ⋅ 10−4 cm−3) of the corona at a distance of ∼ 70 kpc from the Milky Way. If we consider an isothermal profile and extrapolate it at large radii, the corona could contain a significant fraction of the missing baryons associated to the Milky Way.
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Gatto, A., Fraternali, F., Marinacci, F., Read, J., Lux, H. (2014). Estimating the Galactic Coronal Density via Ram-Pressure Stripping from Dwarf Satellites. In: Stamatellos, D., Goodwin, S., Ward-Thompson, D. (eds) The Labyrinth of Star Formation. Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, vol 36. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03041-8_31
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03041-8_31
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