We present maps of the stellar streams detected in the Gaia Data Release 2 (DR2) and Early Data Release 3 (EDR3) catalogs using the STREAMFINDER algorithm. We also report the spectroscopic follow-up of the brighter DR2 stream members obtained with the high-resolution CFHT/ESPaDOnS and VLT/UVES spectrographs as well as with the medium-resolution NTT/EFOSC2 spectrograph. Two new stellar streams that do not have a clear progenitor are detected in DR2 (named Hríd and Gunnthrá), and seven are detected in EDR3 (named Gaia-6 to Gaia-12). Several candidate streams are also identified. The software also finds very long tidal tails associated with the 15 globular clusters: NGC 288, NGC 1261, NGC 1851, NGC 2298, NGC 2808, NGC 3201, M68, ωCen, NGC 5466, Palomar 5, M5, NGC 6101, M92, NGC 6397, and NGC 7089. These stellar streams will be used in subsequent contributions in this series to chart the properties of the Galactic acceleration field on ∼100 pc to ∼100 kpc scales.

The Pan-Andromeda Archaeological Survey is a survey of > 400 square degrees centered on the Andromeda (M31) and Triangulum (M33) galaxies that has provided the most extensive panorama of a L ⋆ galaxy group to large projected galactocentric radii. Here, we collate and summarise the current status of our knowledge of the substructures in the stellar halo of M31, and discuss connections between these features. We estimate that the 13 most distinctive substructures were produced by at least 5 different accretion events, all in the last 3 or 4 Gyrs. We suggest that a few of the substructures furthest from M31 may be shells from a single accretion event. We calculate the luminosities of some prominent substructures for which previous estimates were not available, and we estimate the stellar mass budget of the outer halo of M31. We revisit the problem of quantifying the properties of a highly structured dataset; specifically, we use the OPTICS clustering algorithm to quantify the hierarchical structure of M31's stellar halo, and identify three new faint structures. M31's halo, in projection, appears to be dominated by two "mega-structures", that can be considered as the two most significant branches of a merger tree produced by breaking M31's stellar halo into smaller and smaller structures

The Milky Way halo was predominantly formed by the merging of numerous progenitor galaxies. However, our knowledge of this process is still incomplete, especially in regard to the total number of mergers, their global dynamical properties and their contribution to the stellar population of the Galactic halo. Here, we uncover the Milky Way mergers by detecting groupings of globular clusters, stellar streams, and satellite galaxies in action ( J ) space. While actions fully characterize the orbits, we additionally use the redundant information on their energy (E) to enhance the contrast between the groupings. For this endeavor, we use Gaia EDR3‒based measurements of 170 globular clusters, 41 streams, and 46 satellites to derive their J and E. To detect groups, we use the ENLINK software, coupled with a statistical procedure that accounts for the observed phase-space uncertainties of these objects. We detect a total of N = 6 groups, including the previously known mergers Sagittarius, Cetus, Gaia‒Sausage/Enceladus, LMS-1/Wukong, Arjuna/Sequoia/I’itoi, and one new merger that we call Pontus. All of these mergers, together, comprise 62 objects (≈25% of our sample). We discuss their members, orbital properties, and metallicity distributions. We find that the three most-metal-poor streams of our galaxy—“C-19” ([Fe/H] = −3.4 dex), “Sylgr” ([Fe/H] = −2.9 dex), and “Phoenix” ([Fe/H] = −2.7 dex)—are associated with LMS-1/Wukong, showing it to be the most-metal-poor merger. The global dynamical atlas of Milky Way mergers that we present here provides a present-day reference for galaxy formation models.

Aims. We perform a comprehensive determination of the systemic proper motions of 74 dwarf galaxies and dwarf galaxy candidates in the Local Group based on Gaia early data release 3. The outputs of the analysis for each galaxy, including probabilities of membership, will be made publicly available. The analysis is augmented by a determination of the orbital properties of galaxies within 500 kpc. Methods. We adopt a flexible Bayesian methodology presented in the literature, which takes into account the location of the stars on the sky, on the colour-magnitude diagram, and on the proper motion plane. We applied some modifications, in particular to the way the colour-magnitude diagram and spectroscopic information are factored in, for example, by including stars in several evolution phases. The bulk motions were integrated in three gravitational potentials: two where the Milky Way was treated in isolation and has a mass 0.9 & 1.6 × 1012 M⊙, and a time-varying potential, which includes the infall of a massive Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Results. We were able to determine bulk proper motions for 73 systems, and we consider 66 to be reliable measurements. For the first time, systemic motions are presented for galaxies out to a distance of 1.4 Mpc in the NGC 3109 association. The inclusion of the infall of a massive LMC significantly modifies the orbital trajectories of the objects, with respect to orbit integration in static Milky-Way-only potentials, and this leads to six galaxies likely being associated with the LMC, three possibly being associated with it, and one recently captured object. We discuss the results of the orbit integration in the context of the relation of the galaxies to the system of Milky Way satellites, implications for the too-big-to-fail problem, the impact on star formation histories, and tidal disruption.