The Proper Motion of the Large Magellanic Cloud Using HST

By N. Kallivayalil, R. P. van der Marel, C. Alcock, T. Axelrod, K. Cook, A. Drake, M. Geha. 2005

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We present a measurement of the systemic proper motion of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) from astrometry with the High Resolution Camera (HRC) of the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We observed LMC fields centered on 21 background QSOs that were discovered from their optical variability in the MACHO database. The QSOs are distributed homogeneously behind the central few degrees of the LMC. With two epochs of HRC data and a ~2 yr baseline, we determine the proper motion of the LMC to better than 5% accuracy: μW = -2.03 ± 0.08 mas yr-1, and μN = 0.44 ± 0.05 mas yr-1. This is the most accurate proper-motion measurement for any Milky Way satellite thus far. When combined with H I data from the Magellanic Stream, this should provide new constraints on both the mass distribution of the Galactic halo and models of the Stream.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/0f49c9d426721fe889bbc4081024dc8526bb920b

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Citations in the corpus

SPITZER SAGE SURVEY OF THE LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUD. III. STAR FORMATION AND ∼1000 NEW CANDIDATE YOUNG STELLAR OBJECTS (2008, background): “Recent HST observations of proper motions in the LMC (Kallivayalil et al. 2006b) and Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) (Kallivayalil et al. 2006a) suggest that the 3D velocities of the Clouds are much higher than previously thought, and the Clouds are on their first passage through the Milky Way (Besla…”
The role of dwarf galaxy interactions in shaping the Magellanic System and implications for Magellanic Irregulars (2012, background): “These conclusions are further supported by recent proper motion measurements (Kallivayalil et al. 2006a, hereafter K1; Kallivayalil, van der Marel & Alcock 2006b, hereafter K2) which indicate that the LMC is moving ∼80 km s−1 faster than previously believed (Gardiner & Noguchi 1996).”
Small Dwarf Galaxies within Larger Dwarfs: Why Some Are Luminous while Most Go Dark (2008, background): “The proper motion of the SMC implies a velocity relative to the LMC of∼ 80 km s−1 at a separation of 23 kpc (Kallivayalil et al. 2006b).”
THE SPACE MOTION OF LEO I: THE MASS OF THE MILKY WAY'S DARK MATTER HALO (2012, methodology): “The 11 13 These satellites are the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (Kallivayalil et al. 2006a, 2006b; Piatek et al. 2008), Fornax (Piatek et al. 2007), Sculptor (Piatek et al. 2006), and Leo I (Sohn et al. 2013).”
The VPOS: a vast polar structure of satellite galaxies, globular clusters and streams around the Milky Way (2012, methodology): “This was questioned by the recent proper motion measurements of the LMC by Kallivayalil et al. (2006) and Piatek et al. (2008).”
THIRD-EPOCH MAGELLANIC CLOUD PROPER MOTIONS. I. HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE/WFC3 DATA AND ORBIT IMPLICATIONS (2013, background): “…of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds made by our group with two epochs of Hubble Space Telescope’s (HST ) ACS High Resolution Camera (HRC) data (Kallivayalil et al. 2006a,b, hereafter K2 & K1), and confirmed by Piatek et al. (2008, hereafter P08), have revolutionized the field of Magellanic…”
There's no place like home? Statistics of Milky Way-mass dark matter haloes (2009, methodology): “A possible resolution of this tension – that the existence of the LMC and SMC argue for a more massive MW halo while the lack of recent mergers argues for a less massive Galactic halo – is to directly connect the two issues.”
The Orbital Poles of Milky Way Satellite Galaxies: A Rotationally Supported Disk of Satellites (2008, methodology): “In this case the LMC-SMC system might be bound to theMilkyWay, even though they seem to have too high a velocity.”
Galactic Searches for Dark Matter (2012, background): “However, recent proper motions have questioned this multiple passage model, showing instead that the clouds are most likely on their first passage through the Galaxy (Kallivayalil et al., 2006).”
AGE DETERMINATION OF SIX INTERMEDIATE-AGE SMALL MAGELLANIC CLOUD STAR CLUSTERS WITH HST/ACS (2008, unknown): “Possible orbits of the SMC, LMC, and MW have been modelled by several authors (e.g., Kallivayalil et al. 2006a/b; Bekki & Chiba 2005).”
The Milky Way’s bright satellites as an apparent failure of ΛCDM (2011, background): “• dynamics of the Large Magellanic Cloud Measurements of the proper motion of the LMC place it at a velocity of ∼ 360 km s−1 (Kallivayalil et al. 2006; Piatek et al. 2008), with statistical errors of less than 5%.”
Dynamics for galactic archaeology (2013, background): “We expect halos to arrive in groups, and recent measurements of the proper motion of the Magellanic Clouds (Kallivayalil et al., 2006) suggest that the Clouds form just such an infalling group.”
The Origin of the Magellanic Stream and Its Leading Arm (2007, methodology): “However, the orbit calculations using the new HST proper motions (Kallivayalil et al. 2006a,b; Piatek, Pryor, & Olszewski 2007) and an NFW MW potential by Besla et al. (2007) give past MC encounters at roughly 0.2, 3 and 6 Gyr ago (G. Belsa, private communication).”
The alignment between the distribution of satellites and the orientation of their central galaxy (2006, background): “Similar constraints can also come from the measurement of individual satellite orbits, such as that of the Large Magellanic Cloud or the Sagittarius stream in the Milky Way halo (e.g., Ibata et al. 2001; Helmi 2004; Kallivayalil et al. 2006).”
Is the SMC Bound to the LMC? The Hubble Space Telescope Proper Motion of the SMC (2006, result): “There is now good general agreement between the results from various teams (see Kallivayalil et al. 2006, hereafter Paper I).”
THIRD-EPOCH MAGELLANIC CLOUD PROPER MOTIONS. II. THE LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUD ROTATION FIELD IN THREE DIMENSIONS (2013, background): “The outlier rejection removes both foreground Milky Way stars, as well as stripped SMC stars that are seen in the direction of the LMC (estimated by O11 as ∼ 6% of their sample).”
THE STAR FORMATION HISTORY OF THE LARGE MAGELLANIC CLOUD (2009, methodology): “However, the idea that the Magellanic Clouds have always been satellites of the Milky Way has been seriously challenged by a new measurement of the LMC’s proper motion, using differential astrometry against background quasars from HST images (Kallivayalil et al. 2006; Besla et al. 2007).”
Milky Way mass models for orbit calculations (2012, unknown): “(a) Edelmann et al. (2005); (b) Przybilla et al. (2008); (c) Brown et al. (2010); (d) van der Marel et al. (2002); (e) Freedman et al. (2001); ( f ) Kallivayalil et al. (2006).”