Cover: The tidal forces of the Milky Way slowly pull apart the
Canis Major (CMa) dwarf galaxy (shown here in red). The stars ripped off in
this fashion surround the galaxy in a vast ring.
The red points are from the N-body
simulation of the CMa relic that best fit the existing data (Martin et al. 2004,
MNRAS 348, 12). In blue: an artist's view of the Milky Way galaxy, to sketch the
relative positions of the CMa galaxy and its stream and the Galactic disk. The
discovery of the CMa galaxy has been announced on November 2003 with a joint
press release of the Royal Astronomical Society (UK), INAF-OAB (Italy),
Observatoire de Strasbourg (France).
Credit: N. Martin, R. Ibata, M. Bellazzini, M.J. Irwin, G.F. Lewis, W. Dennen.
