Exploring Halo Substructure with Giant Stars III: First Results from the   Grid Giant Star Survey and Discovery of a Possible Nearby Sagittarius Tidal   Structure in Virgo
  We describe first results of a spectroscopic probe of selected fields from the Grid Giant Star Survey. Multifiber spectroscopy of several hundred stars in a strip of eleven fields along delta approximately -17^{circ}, in the range 12 <~ alpha <~ 17 hours, reveals a group of 8 giants that have kinematical characteristics differing from the main field population, but that as a group maintain coherent, smoothly varying distances and radial velocities with position across the fields. Moreover, these stars have roughly the same abundance, according to their MgH+Mgb absorption line strengths. Photometric parallaxes place these stars in a semi-loop structure, arcing in a contiguous distribution between 5.7 and 7.9 kpc from the Galactic center. The spatial, kinematical, and abundance coherence of these stars suggests that they are part of a diffuse stream of tidal debris, and one roughly consistent with a wrapped, leading tidal arm of the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy. 
A. Kundu, S.R. Majewski, J. Rhee, H.J. Rocha-Pinto, A.A. Polak, C.L.   Slesnick, W.E. Kunkel, K.V. Johnston, R.J. Patterson,...