English

The scattered debris of the Magellanic Stream

Astrophysics 2009-11-13 v1

Abstract

Searching the HI Parkes All-Sky Survey (HIPASS) and its northern extension, we detected a population of very compact high-velocity clouds (HVCs) with similar velocities in the Galactic standard-of-rest frame which appear to be arranged in several filaments aligned with the nearby Magellanic Stream. A comparison with published OVI/CaII absorption and HI emission line measurements suggests that the HVCs are condensations within an extended and mainly ionised component of the Magellanic Stream. They coincide in position with a faint gas stream predicted in numerical simulations of the Magellanic Clouds by Gardiner & Noguchi (1996). Consequently, the Magellanic Stream could be much more extended than generally believed.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0805.0820,
  title  = {The scattered debris of the Magellanic Stream},
  author = {T. Westmeier and B. S. Koribalski},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0805.0820},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

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