Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2006-12-04
Astrophys.J.658:345-357,2007
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
19 pages, 9 figures. Accepted to ApJ
Scientific paper
10.1086/511816
We report on observations of the stellar populations in twelve fields spanning the region between the Magellanic Clouds, made with the Mosaic-II camera on the 4-meter telescope at the Cerro-Tololo Inter-American Observatory. The two main goals of the observations are to characterize the young stellar population (which presumably formed in situ in the Bridge and therefore represents the nearest stellar population formed from tidal debris), and to search for an older stellar component (which would have been stripped from either Cloud as stars, by the same tidal forces which formed the gaseous Bridge). We determine the star-formation history of the young inter-Cloud population, which provides a constraint on the timing of the gravitational interaction which formed the Bridge. We do not detect an older stellar population belonging to the Bridge in any of our fields, implying that the material that was stripped from the Clouds to form the Magellanic Bridge was very nearly a pure gas.
No associations
LandOfFree
The Magellanic Bridge: The Nearest Purely Tidal Stellar Population 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 Bridge: The Nearest Purely Tidal Stellar Population, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The Magellanic Bridge: The Nearest Purely Tidal Stellar Population will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-717320