EVIDENCE FOR DWARF STARS AT D-SIMILAR-TO-100 KILOPARSECS NEAR THE SEXTANS DWARF SPHEROIDAL GALAXY

We present a method for detecting individual, metal-poor, dwarf stars at distances less-than-or-similar-to 150 kpc - a method specifically designed to filter out stars from among the much more numerous faint background field galaxies on the basis of broad-band colors. We apply this technique to two fields at high Galactic latitude, each approximately 8 arcmin2, for which we have deep CCD data in four bands ranging from 3600 to 9000 angstrom. The field in Sextans probably contains greater-than-or-similar-to 5 dwarf stars with B(J) less-than-or-equal-to 25.5. These are consistent with being at a common distance approximately 100 kpc and lie approximately 1-degrees-7 from the newly discovered dwarf galaxy in Sextans whose distance is approximately 85 +/- 10 kpc. The stars lie near the major axis of the galaxy and are or beyond the tidal radius. The second field, toward the south Galactic pole, may contain up to approximately 5 extra-Galactic stars, but these show no evidence for being at a common distance. Possible applications of this type technique are discussed, and we show that even very low surface brightness star clusters or dwarf galaxies may be detected at distances less-than-or-similar-to 1 Mpc.