Toward a Complete Understanding of the Magellanic Stream Formation

Abstract

The Magellanic Clouds have lost most of their gas during their passage by the Milky Way, a property that has never been successfully modeled. Here we use accurate and mesh-free hydrodynamic simulations to reproduce the Magellanic Stream and the Magellanic Clouds in the frame of a 'ram-pressure plus collision' model. This model reproduces many of the observed properties of the HI Stream including most of its density profile along its length and its dual filamentary structure. Besides this, ram-pressure combined with Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities extracts amounts of ionized and HI gas consistent with those observed. The modeled scenario also reproduces the Magellanic Bridge, including the offset between young and old stars, and the collision between the Clouds, which is responsible of the very elongated morphology of the Small Magellanic Cloud along the line of sight. This model has solved most of the mysteries linked to the formation of the Magellanic Stream. The Leading Arm is not reproduced in the current model because it requires an alternative origin.

Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 10 pages, 7 Figures, 2 Tables

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Cited by in corpus (29)

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• The Magellanic Corona and the formation of the Magellanic Stream
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• The VMC survey -- XLIV: Mapping metallicity trends in the Large Magellanic Cloud using near-infrared passbands
• A Recent Major Merger Tale for the Closest Giant Elliptical Galaxy Centaurus A
• The VMC survey -- XLI. Stellar proper motions within the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Discovery of the Magellanic Stellar Stream Out to 100 Kiloparsecs
• The VMC survey -- XXXVIII. Proper motion of the Magellanic Bridge
• The VMC survey -- XXXIX: Mapping metallicity trends in the Small Magellanic Cloud using near-infrared passbands
• Evidence of ram pressure stripping of WLM, a dwarf galaxy far away from any large host galaxy
• Kinematics of the Magellanic Stream and Implications for its Ionization
• An extended stellar halo discovered in the Fornax dwarf spheroidal using Gaia EDR3
• Presence of red giant population in the foreground stellar sub-structure of the Small Magellanic Cloud
• The Relevance of Dynamical Friction for the MW/LMC/SMC Triple System
• Properties of the Magellanic Corona
• The Diffuse Ionized Gas Halo of the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Equilibrium dynamical models in the inner region of the Large Magellanic Cloud based on Gaia DR3 kinematics
• Lessons from the Magellanic System and its modeling
• Young stars raining through the Galactic Halo: the nature and orbit of Price-Whelan 1
• Following the tidal trail: a history of modeling the Magellanic Stream
• The Evolution of Magellanic-like Galaxy Pairs and The Production of Magellanic Stream Analogues in Simulations with Tides, Ram Pressure, and Stellar Feedback
• Discovery of NES, an extended tidal structure in the North-East of the Large Magellanic Cloud
• An intriguing coincidence between the majority of vast polar structure dwarfs and a recent major merger at the M31 position
• Wind of Change: Faraday Rotation in a Simulated Large Magellanic Cloud
• Impact of merger histories on the timing argument estimate of the Local Group mass
• The VMC survey -- XLVI. Stellar proper motions in the centre of the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Origin of gas in the Magellanic Bridge: MeerKAT detection of HI 21-cm absorption