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  • 1511.01499v1

    Rights statement: © 2015. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

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Major mergers with small galaxies: the discovery of a Magellanic-type galaxy at z=0.12

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  • Andreas Koch
  • Matthias J. Frank
  • Anna Pasquali
  • R. Michael Rich
  • Andreas Rabitz
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Article number105
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>15/12/2015
<mark>Journal</mark>The Astrophysical Journal
Issue number2
Volume815
Number of pages10
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

We report on the serendipitous discovery of a star-forming galaxy at redshift z = 0.116 with morphological features that indicate an ongoing merger. This object exhibits two clearly separated components with significantly different colors, plus a possible tidal stream. Follow-up spectroscopy of the bluer component revealed a low star-forming activity of 0.09 M⊙ yr−1 and a high metallicity of 12 + log(O/H) = 8.6. Based on comparison with mass–star formation-rate and mass–metallicity relations, and on fitting of spectral energy distributions, we obtain a stellar mass of 3 × 109 M⊙, which renders this object comparable to the Large Magellanic Cloud. Thus our finding provides a further piece of evidence of a major merger already acting on small, dwarf-galaxy-like scales.