SECCO Survey
searching for StEllar Counterparts of COmpact high velocity clouds
The SeCCO survey is aimed at obtaining deep wide field imaging of Ultra Compact High Velocity HI Clouds that have been recently discovered and proposed as the gaseous components of faint dwarf galaxies in the Local Group and its surroundings. While the absence of stars in these clouds is not sufficient to exclude that they are associated with a Dark Matter halo (i.e. they may be dwarf galaxies that were unable to form stars), the presence of a stellar counterpart would confirm the galaxian nature of these objects, as in the case of the the faint dwarf irregular Leo P . To this aim we have followed-up 25 UCHVC from the list provided by the ALFALFA survey with deep wide-field imaging using the two twins LBC camera mounted on the Large Binocular Telescope.
In 2015/16 we have expanded the sample targeting also 18 candidates from the list
provided by the GALFA HI survey. We are also following-up candidate counterparts.
In italian “secco” means “dry”: indeed we are looking for the possible dry component (stars) of wet (gaseous) celestial bodies.
