ON THE FORMATION OF THE DISK OF SATELLITES OF THE MILKY WAY: SIMULATION OF THE COLLISION OF TWO GALAXIES

At present there is some evidence showing that the satellite galaxies of the Milky Way might be distributed on a disc structure, known as the disc of satellites. In this paper a study on the possible formation of the disc of satellites of the Milky Way as the result of a collision between two disc galaxies ~10 Gyr ago is shown. The study is carried out by numerical N-Body simulations with 10^6 particles in each galaxy and with a mass ratio of 4 to 1, being the larger galaxy similar to the Milky Way. The results show how tidal forces between the two colliding galaxies produce a spatial distribution of debris, where possible groups of stars lie nearly perpendicular to the plane of the host galaxy, showing similarity in this feature with the disc of satellites of the Milky Way.