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A Search for Tidal Stellar Debris from the Magellanic Clouds: Survey Results from the First Two Years

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2016

S. R. Majewski ,
J. C. Ostheimer ,
W. E. Kunkel ,
K. V. Johnston ,
R. J. Patterson  and
C. Palma
S. R. Majewski
Affiliation:
University of Virginia, Department of Astronomy, Charlottesville, VA 22903-0818, USA
J. C. Ostheimer
Affiliation:
University of Virginia, Department of Astronomy, Charlottesville, VA 22903-0818, USA
W. E. Kunkel
Affiliation:
Las Campanas Observatory, Carnegie Observatories, La Serena, Chile
K. V. Johnston
Affiliation:
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
R. J. Patterson
Affiliation:
University of Virginia, Department of Astronomy, Charlottesville, VA 22903-0818, USA
C. Palma
Affiliation:
University of Virginia, Department of Astronomy, Charlottesville, VA 22903-0818, USA

Extract

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An important discriminant between leading models for the origin of the Magellanic Stream is the presence of a stellar counterpart to the HI gas stream: ram pressure stripping of gas by a putative hot Galactic halo would act only on Magellanic gas while gravitational tidal stripping would act on both gas and stars. Several previous attempts to find tidal stellar debris have failed to find carbon stars, A stars, or other main sequence stars in the Magellanic Stream (Mathewson et al. 1979; Recillas-Cruz 1982; Brück & Hawkins 1983; Guhathakurta & Lin 1999). However, there has long been a suggestion (Kunkel 1979; Lynden-Bell 1982) of a possible Magellanic association of satellite galaxies and globular clusters that have similar orbits and may derive from the break up of a greater Magellanic galaxy (Lynden-Bell & Lynden-Bell 1995; Majewski et al. 1997). Recent models (Moore & Davis 1994; Johnston 1998) of the tidal disruption of Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC)-like systems indicate a wide dispersal of debris, much wider than the rather confined HI stream, so that the contrast of tidal debris against the Galactic fore/background would be low. If true, this could explain some of the previous negative results for tidal debris searches.

Type
Part 7. Tidal Interactions
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 190: New Views of the Magellanic Clouds , 1999 , pp. 508 - 510
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 1999 

References

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