The Magellanic Squall: Gas Replenishment from the Small to Large Magellanic Cloud

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

5 pages, 5 figures, accepted in MNRAS Letters

Scientific paper

10.1111/j.1745-3933.2007.00357.x

We first show that a large amount of metal-poor gas is stripped from the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) and fallen into the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) during the tidal interaction between the SMC, the LMC, and the Galaxy over the last 2 Gyrs. We propose that this metal-poor gas can closely be associated with the origin of LMC's young and intermediate-age stars and star clusters with distinctively low-metallicities with [Fe/H] < -0.6. We numerically investigate whether gas initially in the outer part of the SMC's gas disk can be stripped during the LMC-SMC-Galaxy interaction and consequently can pass through the central region (R<7.5 kpc) of the LMC. We find that about 0.7 % and 18 % of the SMC's gas can pass through the central region of the LMC about 1.3 Gyr ago and 0.2 Gyr ago, respectively. The possible mean metallicity of the replenished gas from the SMC to LMC is about [Fe/H] = -0.9 to -1.0 for the two interacting phases. These results imply that the LMC can temporarily replenish gas supplies through the sporadic accretion and infall of metal-poor gas from the SMC. These furthermore imply that if these gas from the SMC can collide with gas in the LMC to form new stars in the LMC, the metallicities of the stars can be significantly lower than those of stars formed from gas initially within the LMC.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

The Magellanic Squall: Gas Replenishment from the Small to Large Magellanic Cloud does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with The Magellanic Squall: Gas Replenishment from the Small to Large Magellanic Cloud, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The Magellanic Squall: Gas Replenishment from the Small to Large Magellanic Cloud will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-505702

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.