Systemic and Internal Proper Motions of the Magellanic Clouds from Astrometry with ACS

Details Systemic and Internal Proper Motions of the Magellanic Clouds from Astrometry with ACS Systemic and Internal Proper Motions of the Magellanic Clouds from Astrometry with ACS

Jul 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002hst..prop.9462a&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #9462

Computer Science

Hst Proposal Id #9462

Scientific paper

We request first epoch observations with ACS of Magellanic Cloud fields centered on background quasars. Second epoch observations will be requested 5 years later to allow the measurement of the systemic and internal proper motions of the Clouds with error < 0.05 mas/year. These motions are of fundamental importance. The systemic motions of the LMC and SMC probe the gravitational potential of the dark halo. The internal proper motion due to rotation can be exploited to yield a rotational parallax distance to the LMC; the first time that this will be done for any galaxy. This is particularly important for the LMC because of its crucial role in the extragalctic distance ladder. Previous measurements of the proper motion of the LMC yield a systemic component ranging from 1.4 mas/year to 3.4 mas/year {differing by several times the quoted errors}, with no useful determination of the internal motions. The main problem with measurements of the proper motion of the LMC has been the lack of a sample of background quasars to use as reference frame. We have recently been able to identify a sample of 54 quasars behind the Magellanic Clouds from their variability characteristics in the MACHO database. With this sample and the advent of ACS an accurate proper motion measurement has become possible for the very first time.

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