A Chemodynamical Census of the Milky Way's Ultra-Faint Compact Satellites. I. A First Population-Level Look at the Internal Kinematics and Metallicities of 19 Extremely-Low-Mass Halo Stellar Systems
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| _version_ | 1866912913800822784 |
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| author | Cerny, William Li, Ting S. Pace, Andrew B. Simon, Joshua D. Geha, Marla Ji, Alexander P. Drlica-Wagner, Alex Bruce, Jordan Gnedin, Oleg Y. Bell, Eric F. Mau, Sidney Escala, Ivanna Bissonette, Daisy Savino, Alessandro Chiti, Anirudh Kirby, Evan N. |
| author_facet | Cerny, William Li, Ting S. Pace, Andrew B. Simon, Joshua D. Geha, Marla Ji, Alexander P. Drlica-Wagner, Alex Bruce, Jordan Gnedin, Oleg Y. Bell, Eric F. Mau, Sidney Escala, Ivanna Bissonette, Daisy Savino, Alessandro Chiti, Anirudh Kirby, Evan N. |
| contents | Deep, wide-area photometric surveys have uncovered a population of compact ($r_{1/2} \approx$ 1-15 pc), extremely-low-mass ($M_* \approx$ 20-4000 $M_{\odot}$) stellar systems in the Milky Way halo that are smaller in size than known ultra-faint dwarf galaxies (UFDs) and substantially fainter than most classical globular clusters (GCs). Very little is known about the nature and origins of this population of "Ultra-Faint Compact Satellites" (UFCSs) owing to a dearth of spectroscopic measurements. Here, we present the first spectroscopic census of these compact systems based on Magellan/IMACS and Keck/DEIMOS observations of 19 individual UFCSs, representing $\sim$2/3 of the known population. We securely measure mean radial velocities for all 19 systems, velocity dispersions for 15 (predominantly upper limits), metallicities for 17, metallicity dispersions for 8, and $\textit{Gaia}$-based mean proper motions for 18. This large new spectroscopic sample provides the first insights into population-level trends for these extreme satellites. We demonstrate that: (1) the UFCSs are kinematically colder, on average, than the UFDs, disfavoring very dense dark matter halos in most cases, (2) the UFCS population is chemically diverse, spanning a factor of $\sim$300 in mean iron abundance ($\rm -3.3 \lesssim [Fe/H] \lesssim -0.8$), with multiple systems falling beneath the "metallicity floor" proposed for GCs, and (3) while some higher-metallicity and/or younger UFCSs are clearly star clusters, the dynamical and/or chemical evidence allows the possibility that up to $\sim$50% of the UFCSs in our sample (9 of 19) may represent the smallest and least-massive galaxies yet discovered. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_17652 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | A Chemodynamical Census of the Milky Way's Ultra-Faint Compact Satellites. I. A First Population-Level Look at the Internal Kinematics and Metallicities of 19 Extremely-Low-Mass Halo Stellar Systems Cerny, William Li, Ting S. Pace, Andrew B. Simon, Joshua D. Geha, Marla Ji, Alexander P. Drlica-Wagner, Alex Bruce, Jordan Gnedin, Oleg Y. Bell, Eric F. Mau, Sidney Escala, Ivanna Bissonette, Daisy Savino, Alessandro Chiti, Anirudh Kirby, Evan N. Astrophysics of Galaxies Deep, wide-area photometric surveys have uncovered a population of compact ($r_{1/2} \approx$ 1-15 pc), extremely-low-mass ($M_* \approx$ 20-4000 $M_{\odot}$) stellar systems in the Milky Way halo that are smaller in size than known ultra-faint dwarf galaxies (UFDs) and substantially fainter than most classical globular clusters (GCs). Very little is known about the nature and origins of this population of "Ultra-Faint Compact Satellites" (UFCSs) owing to a dearth of spectroscopic measurements. Here, we present the first spectroscopic census of these compact systems based on Magellan/IMACS and Keck/DEIMOS observations of 19 individual UFCSs, representing $\sim$2/3 of the known population. We securely measure mean radial velocities for all 19 systems, velocity dispersions for 15 (predominantly upper limits), metallicities for 17, metallicity dispersions for 8, and $\textit{Gaia}$-based mean proper motions for 18. This large new spectroscopic sample provides the first insights into population-level trends for these extreme satellites. We demonstrate that: (1) the UFCSs are kinematically colder, on average, than the UFDs, disfavoring very dense dark matter halos in most cases, (2) the UFCS population is chemically diverse, spanning a factor of $\sim$300 in mean iron abundance ($\rm -3.3 \lesssim [Fe/H] \lesssim -0.8$), with multiple systems falling beneath the "metallicity floor" proposed for GCs, and (3) while some higher-metallicity and/or younger UFCSs are clearly star clusters, the dynamical and/or chemical evidence allows the possibility that up to $\sim$50% of the UFCSs in our sample (9 of 19) may represent the smallest and least-massive galaxies yet discovered. |
| title | A Chemodynamical Census of the Milky Way's Ultra-Faint Compact Satellites. I. A First Population-Level Look at the Internal Kinematics and Metallicities of 19 Extremely-Low-Mass Halo Stellar Systems |
| topic | Astrophysics of Galaxies |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.17652 |