Untangling Magellanic Streams

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Zaritsky, Dennis, Chandra, Vedant, Conroy, Charlie, Bonaca, Ana, Cargile, Phillip A., Naidu, Rohan P.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Zaritsky, Dennis
Chandra, Vedant
Conroy, Charlie
Bonaca, Ana
Cargile, Phillip A.
Naidu, Rohan P.
author_facet Zaritsky, Dennis
Chandra, Vedant
Conroy, Charlie
Bonaca, Ana
Cargile, Phillip A.
Naidu, Rohan P.
contents The Magellanic Stream (MS) has long been known to contain multiple H I strands and corresponding stellar populations are beginning to be discovered. Combining a sample of 17 stars from the H3 ("Hectochelle in the Halo at High Resolution") survey with 891 stars drawn from the Gaia DR3 catalog, we trace stars along a sub-dominant strand of the MS, as defined by gas content, across 30$^\circ$ on the sky. We find that the corresponding dominant strand at the similar position along the MS is devoid of stars with Galactocentric distance $\lesssim 55$ kpc while the subdominant strand shows a close correspondence to such stars. We conclude that (1) these two Stream strands have different origins, (2) they are likely only close in projection, (3) the subdominant strand is tidal in origin, and (4) the subdominant strand is composed of "disk" material, gas and stars, with a chemical composition that marginally favors it coming from the Small Magellanic Cloud.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_15044
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Untangling Magellanic Streams
Zaritsky, Dennis
Chandra, Vedant
Conroy, Charlie
Bonaca, Ana
Cargile, Phillip A.
Naidu, Rohan P.
Astrophysics of Galaxies
The Magellanic Stream (MS) has long been known to contain multiple H I strands and corresponding stellar populations are beginning to be discovered. Combining a sample of 17 stars from the H3 ("Hectochelle in the Halo at High Resolution") survey with 891 stars drawn from the Gaia DR3 catalog, we trace stars along a sub-dominant strand of the MS, as defined by gas content, across 30$^\circ$ on the sky. We find that the corresponding dominant strand at the similar position along the MS is devoid of stars with Galactocentric distance $\lesssim 55$ kpc while the subdominant strand shows a close correspondence to such stars. We conclude that (1) these two Stream strands have different origins, (2) they are likely only close in projection, (3) the subdominant strand is tidal in origin, and (4) the subdominant strand is composed of "disk" material, gas and stars, with a chemical composition that marginally favors it coming from the Small Magellanic Cloud.
title Untangling Magellanic Streams
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.15044