The aim of this work is to find a progenitor for Canes Venatici I (CVn I), under the assumption that it is a dark matter free object that is undergoing tidal disruption. With a simple point mass integrator, we searched for an orbit for this galaxy using its current position, position angle, and radial velocity in the sky as constraints. The orbit that gives the best results has the pair of proper motions μα = −0.099 mas yr−1 and μδ = −0.147 mas yr−1, that is, an apogalactic distance of 242.79 kpc and a perigalactic distance of 20.01 kpc. Using a dark matter free progenitor that undergoes tidal disruption, the best-fitting model matches the final mass, surface brightness, effective radius, and velocity dispersion of CVn I simultaneously. This model has an initial Plummer mass of 2.47 × 107 M⊙ and a Plummer radius of 653 pc, producing a remnant after 10 Gyr with a final mass of 2.45 × 105 M⊙, a central surface brightness of 26.9 mag arcsec−2, an effective radius of 545.7 pc, and a velocity dispersion with the value 7.58 km s−1. Furthermore, it is matching the position angle and ellipticity of the projected object in the sky.

Dwarf spheroidal galaxies are regarded as the basic building blocks in the formation of larger galaxies and are believed to be the most dark matter dominated systems known in the Universe. There are several models that attempt to explain their formation and evolution, but they have problems to model the formation of isolated dwarf spheroidal galaxies. Here, we will explain a possible formation scenario in which star clusters form inside the dark matter halo of a dwarf spheroidal galaxy. Those star clusters suffer from low star formation efficiency and dissolve while orbiting inside the dark matter halo. Thereby, they build the faint luminous components that we observe in dwarf spheroidal galaxies. In this paper we study this model by adding different star formation histories to the simulations to compare the results with our previous work and observational data to show that we can explain the formation of dwarf spheroidal galaxies.

In the past decades, extended old stellar clusters have been observed. These extended objects cover a large range in masses, from extended clusters or faint fuzzies to ultracompact dwarf galaxies. It has been demonstrated that these extended objects can be the result of the merging of star clusters in cluster complexes (small regions in which dozens to hundreds of star clusters form). This formation channel is called the ‘Merging Star Cluster Scenario’. This work tries to explain the formation of compact ellipticals in the same theoretical framework. Compact ellipticals are a comparatively rare class of spheroidal galaxies, possessing very small effective radii and high central surface brightnesses. With the use of numerical simulations we show that the merging star cluster scenario, adopted for higher masses, as found with those galaxies, can reproduce all major characteristics and the dynamics of these objects. This opens up a new formation channel to explain the existence of compact elliptical galaxies.