Hyades tidal tails revealed by Gaia DR2

Siegfried Röser , Elena Schilbach , Bertrand Goldman (1)

1 ObAS - Observatoire astronomique de Strasbourg

Aims. Within a 200 pc sphere around the Sun, we search for the Hyades tidal tails in the Gaia DR2 dataset. Methods. We used a modified convergent-point method to search for stars with space velocities close to the space velocity of the Hyades cluster. Results. We find a clear indication for the existence of the Hyades tidal tails, a leading tail extending up to 170 pc from the centre of the Hyades with 292 stars (36 contaminants), and a trailing tail up to 70 pc with 237 stars (32 contaminants). A comparison with an N-body model of the cluster and its tails shows remarkably good coincidence. Five white dwarfs are found in the tails.

Domaines: Planète et Univers [physics]

Siegfried Röser, Elena Schilbach, Bertrand Goldman. Hyades tidal tails revealed by Gaia DR2. Astronomy and Astrophysics - A&A, 2019, 621, pp.L2. ⟨10.1051/0004-6361/201834608⟩. ⟨hal-03148414⟩