The spatial distribution of the Galactic satellite system plays an important role in Galactic dynamics and cosmology, where its successful reproduction is a key test of simulations of galaxy halo formation. Here, we examine its representative nature by conducting an analysis of the 3-dimensional spatial distribution of the M31 subgroup of galaxies, the next closest system to our own. We begin b...

We present the discovery of two new dwarf galaxies, Andromeda XXI and Andromeda XXII, located in the surroundings of the Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies (M31 and M33). These discoveries stem from the first year data of the Pan-Andromeda Archaeological Survey (PAndAS), a photometric survey of the M31/M33 group conducted with the Megaprime/MegaCam wide-field camera mounted on the Canada-France-...

We present a progress report on Washington photometry of several hundred new globular cluster (GC) candidates in M31 which were recently found from our new CCD survey of GCs. Washington CMT1 filters we used are very efficient to survey extragalactic GCs and to estimate the metallicity of GCs. Preliminary color-magnitude diagrams and color-color diagrams of the new GC candidates and known GCs in...

We present the latest results from our project to search for new planetary nebulae in nearby galaxies using Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) imaging data. Our method is based on photometric criteria and can be applied to galaxies where PNe appear as point sources. We applied these criteria to the whole area of M31 as scanned by SDSS, detecting 130 new PN candidates and 30 known PNe. All selected...

The inclination of M31 is too close to edge-on for a bar component to be easily recognised and is not sufficiently edge-on for a boxy/peanut bulge to protrude clearly out of the equatorial plane. Nevertheless, a sufficient number of clues allow us to argue that this galaxy is barred. We use fully self-consistent N -body simulations of barred galaxies and compare them with both photometric and k...

We have used the data from the DIRECT project to search for new globular cluster candidates in the M31 and M33 galaxies. We have found 67 new objects in M31 and 35 in M33 and confirmed 38 and 16 previously discovered ones. A V I and BV I photometry has been obtained for all the clusters in M31 and M33 respectively. Luminosity functions have been constructed for the clusters in each galaxy and c...

We report on the identification of a new cluster in the far halo of the M31 galaxy. The cluster, named Bologna 514 (B514) has an integrated magnitude M V = −8.5 ± 0.6, and a radial velocity, as estimated from two independent low-resolution spectra, V r = −456 ± 23 km/s, which fully confirms its membership to the M31 system. The observed integrated spectrum is very similar to those of classical ...

We have imaged the extended HI environment of M31 with an unprecedented combination of high resolution and sensitivity. We detect a number of distinct High Velocity Cloud components associated with M31. A subset of the features within 30 kpc appear to be tidal in origin. A filamentary " halo " component is concentrated at the M31 systemic velocity and appears to extend into a " bridge " connect...

A velocity dispersion has been measured for the luminous globular cluster M31 037–B327, claimed to be the most massive star cluster in the Local Group and to be a young “super star cluster” that has survived to an old age. M31 037– B327 has a mass comparable to that of M31 G1, but not significantly larger. Although near the upper end for the mass distribution of globular clusters, it is not an ...