High-Resolution Observations of the Magellanic Stream

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Deanna Matthews Dr Lister Staveley-Smith Professor Peter Dyson La Trobe University ATNF, CSIRO La Trobe University

• The Magellanic System

• The Magellanic Stream (MS)

• The origin of the Magellanic Stream

• ATCA Pilot Survey of the MS

• Preliminary Results

• Future Work

Putman et al. 2003, ApJ, 586

The Magellanic System

Leading Arm

LMC

SMC

Magellanic StreamMagellanic Bridge

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The ATCA Pilot Survey of the Magellanic Stream

• The H75 array of the ATCA was used to observe a 250 deg2 region at the head of the Magellanic Stream

• July & August 2005

• 100 hours observing time

The Magellanic Stream

• Peak intensity map

• Total 2618 pointings

• Integration time- 2 min/pointing

• Velocity resolution- 1.649 km s-1

• Angular Resolution- 7.4 x 6.2

arcmin2

• RMS sensitivity 0.1 K

• Fully image spatial scales from

0.1 to 2 kpc

Peak temperature maps of a filament from combined GASS+Brüns data (left) and ATCA+GASS+Brüns data (right)

The Magellanic Stream

• SMC, Interface Region and

initial bifurcation of the Stream

• Velocity range 82-254 km s-1

• Column density-

Min- 4.23 x 1019 cm-2

Max- 5.05 x 1020 cm-2

• Total HI Mass our region-

M(HI) = 1.17 x 108 Msun

[d/60 kpc]2

Velocity Maps of the Observed Stream

Velocity Dispersion in the Interface Region

Future Work

• Much to be done!

• Results thus far are very promising!

• Spatial Power Spectrum (SPS)

• Extend velocity analysis, including velocity

dispersion

• Search for HI shells and holes

• Statistically compare the cool and warm gas

• Investigate data from other wavelengths,

particularly H, IR and UV