Gas and Star Formation in Satellites of Milky Way Analogs

Abstract

We have imaged the entirety of eight (plus one partial) Milky Way (MW)–like satellite systems, a total of 42 (45) satellites, from the Satellites Around Galactic Analogs II catalog in both H α and H i with the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope and the Jansky Very Large Array. In these eight systems we have identified four cases where a satellite appears to be currently undergoing ram pressure stripping (RPS) as its H i gas collides with the circumgalactic medium (CGM) of its host. We also see a clear suppression of gas fraction ( M HI / M * ) with decreasing (projected) satellite–host separation—to our knowledge, the first time this has been observed in a sample of MW-like systems. Comparisons to the Auriga, A Project Of Simulating The Local Environment, and TNG50 cosmological zoom-in simulations show consistent global behavior, but they systematically underpredict gas fractions across all satellites by roughly 0.5 dex. Using a simplistic RPS model, we estimate the average peak CGM density that satellites in these systems have encountered to be log ρ cgm / g cm − 3 ≈ − 27.3 . Furthermore, we see tentative evidence that these satellites are following a specific star formation rate to gas fraction relation that is distinct from field galaxies. Finally, we detect one new gas-rich satellite in the UGC 903 system with an optical size and surface brightness meeting the standard criteria to be considered an ultra-diffuse galaxy.