The Origin of the Magellanic Stream and Its Leading Arm

By D. Nidever, S. Majewski, W. B. Burton. 2007

202 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We explore the Magellanic Stream (MS) using a Gaussian decomposition of the H I velocity profiles in the Leiden-Argentine-Bonn (LAB) all-sky H I survey. This decomposition reveals the MS to be composed of two filaments distinct both spatially (as first pointed out by Putman et al.) and in velocity. Using the velocity coherence of the filaments, one can be traced back to its origin in what we identify as the southeast H I overdensity (SEHO) of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), which includes 30 Doradus. Parts of the Leading Arm (LA) can also be traced back to the SEHO in velocity and position. Therefore, at least one-half of the trailing Stream and most of the LA originates in the LMC, contrary to previous assertions that both the MS and the LA originate in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) and/or in the Magellanic Bridge. The two MS filaments show strong periodic, undulating spatial and velocity patterns that we speculate are an imprint of the LMC rotation curve. If true, then the drift rate of the Stream gas away from the Magellanic Clouds is ~49 km s−1 and the age of the MS is ~1.74 Gyr. The Staveley-Smith et al. high-resolution H I data of the LMC show gas outflows from supergiant shells in the SEHO that seem to be creating the LA and LMC filament of the MS. Blowout of LMC gas is an effect not previously accounted for but one that probably plays an important role in creating the MS and LA.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Computational Mechanics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6ba4e393d863ee91c403c9c7f58e3432452ab76f

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Citations in the corpus

Probing Galactic Halos with Fast Radio Bursts (2019, unknown): “The Magellanic System (i.e., LMC/SMC and the H i stream; Putman et al. 2003; Nidever et al. 2008, 2010) can be seen with NHI & 1020 cm−2, together with some bright HVC structures such as Complex C (` ∼ 90, b ∼ 45), K (` ∼ 60, b ∼ 30), A (` ∼ 150, b ∼ 30), and WD (` ∼ 270, b ∼ 20) (Wakker 2001,…”
Dwarf galaxy planes: the discovery of symmetric structures in the Local Group (2013, methodology): “For this, the galaxy positions have been transformed to the Magellanic Stream Coordinate System introduced by Nidever et al. (2008), in which the Magellanic Stream lies along the equator and the position of the LMC on the equator defines the zero-point of the Magellanic Stream Longitude, LMS.”
SIMULATIONS OF THE MAGELLANIC STREAM IN A FIRST INFALL SCENARIO (2010, unknown): “The white line is a fit to the data (Putman et al. 2003; Nidever et al. 2008)[hereafter, N08] and shows good agreement with the simulation.”
The role of dwarf galaxy interactions in shaping the Magellanic System and implications for Magellanic Irregulars (2012, methodology): “There is a well-defined velocity gradient along the length of the Stream (Putman et al. 2003; Nidever et al. 2008), ranging from 200 km s−1 near the Clouds to −400 km s−1.”
Gaseous Galaxy Halos (2012, background): “…System and it is thought to be the result of a combination of a tidal interaction between the two satellites and their subsequent interaction with the Milky Way (Connors et al., 2006b; Mastropietro et al., 2005; Besla et al., 2010; Gardiner, 1999; Diaz & Bekki, 2012; Nidever et al., 2008).”
Planck 2013 results. XXX. Cosmic infrared background measurements and implications for star formation (2013, methodology): “The data were gridded on a Cartesian grid on the Magellanic stream (MS) coordinate system as defined by Nidever et al. (2008).”
THE SAGITTARIUS DWARF GALAXY: A MODEL FOR EVOLUTION IN A TRIAXIAL MILKY WAY HALO (2010, background): “Based on great-circle fits to the Magellanic stream, the pole of the system appears to be (lp, bp) = (188.5 ◦,−7.5◦) (Nidever et al. 2008).”