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Description
Cetus is an isolated, dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxy at a distance of 755kpc. In order to quantify its stellar chemo-kinematical properties, we observed individual red giants branch stars in Cetus with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) FORS2 instrument, in Mask eXchange Unit (MXU) configuration. The kinematic analysis shows that Cetus is a mainly pressure-supported ({sigma}_v_=11.0^+1.6^_-1.3_km/s), dark-matter-dominated system (M_1/2_/L_V_=23.9^+9.7^_-8.9_M_{sun}_/L_{sun}_) with no significant signs of internal rotation. We find Cetus to be a metal-poor system with a significant metallicity spread (median [Fe/H]=-1.71dex, median-absolute-deviation =0.49dex), as expected for its stellar mass. We report the presence of a mild metallicity gradient compatible with those found in other dSphs of the same luminosity; we trace the presence of a stellar population gradient also in the spatial distribution of stars in different evolutionary phases in ancillary photometric data. There are tentative indications of two chemo-kinematically distinct sub-populations, with the more metal-poor stars showing a hotter kinematics than the metal-richer ones. Our results add Cetus to the growing scatter in stellar-dark matter halo properties in low-mass galactic systems. The presence of a metallicity gradient akin to those found in similar systems inhabiting different environments may hint at metallicity gradients in Local Group early-type dwarfs being driven by internal mechanisms.
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