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Description
We present Magellan/M2FS, Very Large Telescope/GIRAFFE, and Gemini South/GMOS spectroscopy of the newly discovered Milky Way satellite Reticulum II. Based on the spectra of 25 Ret II member stars selected from Dark Energy Survey imaging, we measure a mean heliocentric velocity of 62.8+/-0.5km/s and a velocity dispersion of 3.3+/-0.7km/s. The mass-to-light ratio of Ret II within its half-light radius is 470+/-210M_{sun}_/L_{sun}_, demonstrating that it is a strongly dark matter-dominated system. Despite its spatial proximity to the Magellanic Clouds, the radial velocity of Ret II differs from that of the LMC and SMC by 199 and 83km/s, respectively, suggesting that it is not gravitationally bound to the Magellanic system. The likely member stars of Ret II span 1.3dex in metallicity, with a dispersion of 0.28+/-0.09dex, and we identify several extremely metal-poor stars with [Fe/H]<-3. In combination with its luminosity, size, and ellipticity, these results confirm that Ret II is an ultra-faint dwarf galaxy. With a mean metallicity of [Fe/H]=-2.65+/-0.07, Ret II matches Segue 1 as the most metal-poor galaxy known. Although Ret II is the third-closest dwarf galaxy to the Milky Way, the line-of-sight integral of the dark matter density squared is log_10_(J)=18.8+/-0.6GeV^2^/cm^5^ within 0.2{deg}, indicating that the predicted gamma-ray flux from dark matter annihilation in Ret II is lower than that of several other dwarf galaxies.
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