Stellar haloes outshine disc truncations in low-inclined spirals

Abstract

The absence of stellar disc truncations in low-inclined spiral galaxies has been a matter of debate in the last decade. Disc truncations are often observed in highly inclined galaxies but no obvious detection of this feature has so far been made in face-on spirals. Here we show, using a simple exponential disc plus stellar halo model based on current observational constraints, that truncations in face-on projections occur at surface brightness levels comparable to the brightness of stellar haloes at the same radial distance. In this sense, stellar haloes outshine the galaxy disc at the expected position of the truncations, forcing their studies only in highly inclined (edge-on) orientations. © 2014 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.