Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aas...21742405n&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #217, #424.05; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The Magellanic Clouds are a local laboratory for understanding the evolution and properties of dwarf irregular galaxies. To reveal the extended structure and interaction history of the Magellanic Clouds, we have undertaken a large-scale photometric and spectroscopic study of their stellar periphery (The MAgellanic Periphery Survey, MAPS). We present our first results for the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC): Washington M, T2 + DDO51 photometry reveals metal-poor red giant branch stars in the SMC that extend out to large radii (11.1 kpc), are distributed nearly azimuthally symmetrically (ellipticity=0.1), and are well-fitted by an exponential profile (out to R=7.5 deg). We find a "break" population beyond 8 radial scalelengths having a very shallow radial density profile that looks to be a stellar halo. The outer stellar distribution contrasts with that of the inner stellar distribution, which is both more elliptical (ellipticity 0.3) and offset from the center of the outer population by 0.63 deg, although both populations share a similar radial exponential scale length. This offset is likely due to a perspective effect since stars on the eastern side of the SMC are on average at closer distances than stars on the western side. The discovery of these new outer stellar structures indicates that the SMC is more complex than previously thought. Our results indicate that it is likely that the SMC has a large stellar halo, which, if correct, would confirm predictions by Lambda CDM simulations that galaxies on all scales should have substructure and halos.
Beaton Rachael Lynn
Kunkel William E.
Majewski Steven R.
Muñoz Roberto
Nidever David L.
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