We present wide-field g and i band stellar photometry of the Sextans dwarf spheroidal galaxy and its surrounding area out to four times its half-light radius ( r _ { h } = 695 pc ) , based on images obtained with the Dark Energy Camera at the 4-m Blanco telescope at CTIO .
We find clear evidence of stellar substructure associated with the galaxy , extending to a distance of 82 \arcmin ( 2 kpc ) from its centre .
We perform a statistical analysis of the over-densities and find three distinct features , as well as an extended halo-like structure , to be significant at the 99.7 \% confidence level or higher .
Unlike the extremely elongated and extended substructures surrounding the Hercules dwarf spheroidal galaxy , the over-densities seen around Sextans are distributed evenly about its centre , and do not appear to form noticeable tidal tails .
Fitting a King model to the radial distribution of Sextans stars yields a tidal radius r _ { t } = 83.2 \arcmin \pm 7.1 \arcmin ( 2.08 \pm 0.18 kpc ) , which implies the majority of detected substructure is gravitationally bound to the galaxy .
This finding suggests that Sextans is not undergoing significant tidal disruption from the Milky Way , supporting the scenario in which the orbit of Sextans has a low eccentricity .