The final stages of mass assembly of present-day massive galaxies are expected to occur through the accretion of multiple satellites .
Cosmological simulations thus predict a high frequency of stellar streams resulting from this mass accretion around the massive galaxies in the Local Volume .
Such tidal streams are difficult to observe , especially in dense cluster environments , where they are readily destroyed .
We present an investigation into the origins of a series of interlaced narrow filamentary stellar structures , loops and plumes in the vicinity of the Virgo Cluster , edge-on spiral galaxy , NGC 4216 that were previously identified by the Blackbird Telescope .
Using the deeper , higher-resolution and precisely calibrated optical CFHT/MegaCam images obtained as part of the Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey ( NGVS ) , we confirm the previously identified features and identify a few additional structures .
The NGVS data allowed us to make a physical study of these low-surface brightness features and investigate their origin .
The likely progenitors of the structures were identified as either already catalogued VCC dwarfs or newly discovered satellites caught in the act of being destroyed .
They have the same g - i color index and likely contain similar stellar populations .
The alignment of three dwarfs along an apparently single stream is intriguing , and we can not totally exclude that these are second-generation dwarf galaxies being born inside the filament from the debris of an original dwarf .
The observed complex structures , including in particular a stream apparently emanating from a satellite of a satellite , point to a high rate of ongoing dwarf destruction/accretion in the region of the Virgo Cluster where NGC 4216 is located .
We discuss the age of the interactions and whether they occurred in a group that is just falling into the cluster and shows signs of so-called ” pre-processing ” before it gets affected by the cluster environment , or in a group which already ventured towards the central regions of Virgo Cluster .
In any case , compared to the other spiral galaxies in the Virgo Cluster , but also to those located in lower density environments , NGC 4216 seems to suffer an unusually high heavy bombardment .
Further studies will be needed to determine whether , given the surface brightness limit of our survey , about 29 mag arcsec ^ { -2 } , the number of observed streams around that galaxy is as predicted by cosmological simulations or conversely , whether the possible lack of similar structures in other galaxies poses a challenge to the merger-based model of galaxy mass assembly .