Speaker
Description
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), a space-based optical observatory, was primarily designed to monitor stellar light curves and detect exoplanets. However, its Full-Frame Images (FFIs) are also highly valuable for both galactic and extragalactic science, particularly in the low surface brightness (LSB) regime (Holwerda, 2018). We constructed a full-sky map from TESS image patches to investigate the relation between halo mass and luminosity of galaxy groups. By stacking over tens of thousand galaxy groups, we statistically collect all the light in the images, meaning that the photons from the faintest galaxies or diffuse stellar components are also included, which traditional imaging surveys may miss due to depth limits. This map, formatted in HEALPix with a 1.7’ resolution and bright Gaia stars removed, provides a powerful field for stacking analysis of extended structures beyond the Milky Way due to its complete light-collection capability.
We applied the stacking framework to the DESI DR1 extended halo-based group catalog to probe the scaling relations of different luminosity components. Our preliminary results reveal that satellite+IHL luminosity is the most robust tracer of halo mass, following a power-law relation with an index of approximately 0.9. The satellite+IHL luminosity is defined as the total light within the group with the BCG subtracted. This finding not only provides a new observational pathway for calibrating group-scale halo masses but also demonstrates the immense, underestimated potential of TESS for wide-field LSB cosmology.
| Participate the oral/poster presentation award competition | Yes |
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