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Age and Mass of the Local Group from Satellite Galaxy Dynamics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2016

Alan B. Whiting
Alan B. Whiting*
Affiliation:
Physics Department, U. S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD 21402, USA

Abstract

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The present kinematics of an unrelaxed system such as the Local Group can be used to investigate its dynamics on a cosmological time scale. In particular, the classical timing argument of Kahn & Woltjer may be extended to distant satellite galaxies of the Local Group whose distances and velocities are known with some accuracy. Including a correction for the fact that the Local Group was not always dynamically isolated, I derive a mass for the Group of about 1.6 x 1012M⊙ and an age of 1.0 to 1.2 x 1010 years.

Type
Part 4. Morphology, Kinematics and Dynamics
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 192: The Stellar Content of Local Group Galaxies , 1999 , pp. 420 - 426
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 1999 

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