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تسجيل مستخدم جديدIs the SMC Bound to the LMC? The HST Proper Motion of the SMC
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Nitya Kallivayalil
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We present a measurement of the systemic proper motion of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) made using the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on the textit{Hubble Space Telescope} (textit{HST}). We tracked the SMCs motion relative to 4 background QSOs over a baseline of approximately 2 years. The measured proper motion is : $mu_W = -1.16 pm 0.18 masyr, mu_N = -1.17 pm 0.18 masyr$. This is the best measurement yet of the SMCs proper motion. We combine this new result with our prior estimate of the proper motion of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) from the same observing program to investigate the orbital evolution of both Clouds over the past 9 Gyr. The current relative velocity between the Clouds is $105 pm 42 kms$. Our investigations of the past orbital motions of the Clouds in a simple model for the dark halo of the Milky Way imply that the Clouds could be unbound from each other. However, our data are also consistent with orbits in which the Clouds have been bound to each other for approximately a Hubble time. Smaller proper motion errors and better understanding of the LMC and SMC masses would be required to constrain their past orbital history and their bound vs. unbound nature unambiguously. The new proper motion measurements should be sufficient to allow the construction of improved models for the origin and properties of the Magellanic Stream. In turn, this will provide new constraints on the properties of the Milky Way dark halo.
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