Bibcode
Noël, N. E. D.; Conn, B. C.; Carrera, R.; Read, J. I.; Rix, H.-W.; Dolphin, A.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 768, Issue 2, article id. 109, 7 pp. (2013).
Advertised on:
5
2013
Journal
Citations
47
Refereed citations
43
Description
The origin of the gas in between the Magellanic Clouds (MCs)—known
as the "Magellanic Bridge" (MB)—is puzzling. Numerical simulations
suggest that the MB formed from tidally stripped gas and stars in a
recent interaction between the MCs. However, the apparent lack of
stripped intermediate- or old-age stars associated with the MB is at
odds with this picture. In this paper, we present the first results from
the MAGellanic Inter-Cloud program (MAGIC) aimed at probing the stellar
populations in the inter-Cloud region. We present observations of the
stellar populations in two large fields located in between the Large and
Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC/SMC), secured using the WFI camera on the
2.2 m telescope in La Silla. Using a synthetic color-magnitude diagram
technique, we present the first quantitative evidence for the presence
of intermediate-age and old stars in the inter-Cloud region. The
intermediate-age stars—which make up ~28% of all stars in the
region—are not present in fields at a similar distance from the
SMC in a direction pointing away from the LMC. This provides potential
evidence that these intermediate-age stars could have been tidally
stripped from the SMC. However, spectroscopic studies will be needed to
confirm or rule out the tidal origin for the inter-Cloud gas and stars.
Related projects
Galaxy Evolution in the Local Group
Galaxy formation and evolution is a fundamental Astrophysical problem. Its study requires “travelling back in time”, for which there are two complementary approaches. One is to analyse galaxy properties as a function of red-shift. Our team focuses on the other approach, called “Galactic Archaeology”. It is based on the determination of galaxy
Matteo
Monelli