The Proper Motion of Draco II with HST using Multiple Reference Frames and Methodologies

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Main Authors: Warfield, Jack T., McKinnon, Kevin A., Sohn, Sangmo Tony, Kallivayalil, Nitya, Savino, Alessandro, van der Marel, Roeland P., Pace, Andrew B., Garling, Christopher T., Ahvazi, Niusha, Bennet, Paul, Cohen, Roger E., Correnti, Matteo, Fardal, Mark A., McQuinn, Kristen B. W., Newman, Max J. B., Vitral, Eduardo
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Warfield, Jack T.
McKinnon, Kevin A.
Sohn, Sangmo Tony
Kallivayalil, Nitya
Savino, Alessandro
van der Marel, Roeland P.
Pace, Andrew B.
Garling, Christopher T.
Ahvazi, Niusha
Bennet, Paul
Cohen, Roger E.
Correnti, Matteo
Fardal, Mark A.
McQuinn, Kristen B. W.
Newman, Max J. B.
Vitral, Eduardo
author_facet Warfield, Jack T.
McKinnon, Kevin A.
Sohn, Sangmo Tony
Kallivayalil, Nitya
Savino, Alessandro
van der Marel, Roeland P.
Pace, Andrew B.
Garling, Christopher T.
Ahvazi, Niusha
Bennet, Paul
Cohen, Roger E.
Correnti, Matteo
Fardal, Mark A.
McQuinn, Kristen B. W.
Newman, Max J. B.
Vitral, Eduardo
contents We present proper motion (PM) measurements for Draco II, an ultra-faint dwarf satellite of the Milky Way. These PMs are measured using two epochs of Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys (HST/ACS) imaging separated by a 7 year time baseline. Measuring PMs of low-luminosity systems is difficult due to the low number of member stars, requiring a precise inertial reference frame. We construct reference frames using three different sets of external sources: 1) stars with Gaia DR3 data, 2) stationary background galaxies, and 3) a combination of the two. We show that all three reference frames give consistent PM results. We find that for this sparse, low-luminosity regime including background galaxies into the reference frame improves our measurement by up to $\sim2\times$ versus using only Gaia astrometric data. Using 301 background galaxies as a reference frame, we find that Draco II's systemic PM is $(μ_α^*, μ_δ) = (1.043\pm0.029, 0.879\pm0.028)$ mas/yr, which is the most precise measurement of the three we present in this paper.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_24849
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Proper Motion of Draco II with HST using Multiple Reference Frames and Methodologies
Warfield, Jack T.
McKinnon, Kevin A.
Sohn, Sangmo Tony
Kallivayalil, Nitya
Savino, Alessandro
van der Marel, Roeland P.
Pace, Andrew B.
Garling, Christopher T.
Ahvazi, Niusha
Bennet, Paul
Cohen, Roger E.
Correnti, Matteo
Fardal, Mark A.
McQuinn, Kristen B. W.
Newman, Max J. B.
Vitral, Eduardo
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
We present proper motion (PM) measurements for Draco II, an ultra-faint dwarf satellite of the Milky Way. These PMs are measured using two epochs of Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys (HST/ACS) imaging separated by a 7 year time baseline. Measuring PMs of low-luminosity systems is difficult due to the low number of member stars, requiring a precise inertial reference frame. We construct reference frames using three different sets of external sources: 1) stars with Gaia DR3 data, 2) stationary background galaxies, and 3) a combination of the two. We show that all three reference frames give consistent PM results. We find that for this sparse, low-luminosity regime including background galaxies into the reference frame improves our measurement by up to $\sim2\times$ versus using only Gaia astrometric data. Using 301 background galaxies as a reference frame, we find that Draco II's systemic PM is $(μ_α^*, μ_δ) = (1.043\pm0.029, 0.879\pm0.028)$ mas/yr, which is the most precise measurement of the three we present in this paper.
title The Proper Motion of Draco II with HST using Multiple Reference Frames and Methodologies
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.24849