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A stellar overdensity associated with the Small Magellanic Cloud

We report the discovery of a stellar overdensity 8 degrees north of the centre of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC; Small Magellanic Cloud Northern Over-Density; SMCNOD), using data from the first 2 yr of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and the first year of the MAGellanic SatelLITEs Survey (MagLiteS). The SMCNOD is indistinguishable in age, metallicity and distance from the nearby SMC stars, being primarily composed of intermediate-age stars (6 Gyr, Z=0.001), with a small fraction of young stars (1 Gyr, Z=0.01). The SMCNOD has an elongated shape with an ellipticity of 0.6 and a size of similar to 6 degrees x 2 degrees. It has an absolute magnitude of M-V congruent to -7.7, r(h) = 2.1 kpc, and mu v(r < r(h)) = 31.2 mag arcsec(-2). We estimate a stellar mass of similar to 10(5) M-circle dot, following a Kroupa mass function. The SMCNOD was probably removed from the SMC disc by tidal stripping, since it is located near the head of the Magellanic Stream, and the literature indicates likely recent Large Magellanic Cloud-SMC encounters. This scenario is supported by the lack of significant H-1 gas. Other potential scenarios for the SMCNOD origin are a transient overdensity within the SMC tidal radius or a primordial SMC satellite in advanced stage of disruption.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/624062
Date06 1900
CreatorsPieres, A., Santiago, B. X., Drlica-Wagner, A., Bechtol, K., Marel, R. P. van der, Besla, G., Martin, N. F., Belokurov, V., Gallart, C., Martinez-Delgado, D., Marshall, J., Nöel, N. E. D., Majewski, S. R., Cioni, M.-R. L., Li, T. S., Hartley, W., Luque, E., Conn, B. C., Walker, A. R., Balbinot, E., Stringfellow, G. S., Olsen, K. A. G., Nidever, D., da Costa, L. N., Ogando, R., Maia, M., Neto, A. Fausti, Abbott, T. M. C., Abdalla, F. B., Allam, S., Annis, J., Benoit-Lévy, A., Rosell, A. Carnero, Kind, M. Carrasco, Carretero, J., Cunha, C. E., D'Andrea, C. B., Desai, S., Diehl, H. T., Doel, P., Flaugher, B., Fosalba, P., García-Bellido, J., Gruen, D., Gruendl, R. A., Gschwend, J., Gutierrez, G., Honscheid, K., James, D., Kuehn, K., Kuropatkin, N., Menanteau, F., Miquel, R., Plazas, A. A., Romer, A. K., Sako, M., Sanchez, E., Scarpine, V., Schubnell, M., Sevilla-Noarbe, I., Smith, R. C., Soares-Santos, M., Sobreira, F., Suchyta, E., Swanson, M. E. C., Tarle, G., Tucker, D. L., Wester, W.
ContributorsUniv Arizona, Steward Observ
PublisherOXFORD UNIV PRESS
Source SetsUniversity of Arizona
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeArticle
Rights© 2017 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society
Relationhttps://academic.oup.com/mnras/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/mnras/stx507

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