The VMC Survey -- XL. Three-dimensional structure of the Small Magellanic Cloud as derived from red clump stars

Abstract

Galaxy interactions distort the distribution of baryonic matter and can affect star formation. The nearby Magellanic Clouds are a prime example of an ongoing galaxy interaction process. Here we use the intermediate-age ($\sim 1$-$10$ Gyr) red clump stars to map the three-dimensional structure of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) and interpret it within the context of its history of interaction with the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and the Milky Way. Red clump stars are selected from near-infrared colour-magnitude diagrams based on data from the VISTA survey of the Magellanic Clouds. Interstellar reddening is measured and removed, and the corrected brightness is converted to a distance, on a star-by-star basis. A flat plane fitted to the spatial distribution of red clump stars has an inclination $i=35°$-$48°$ and position angle PA$=170°$-$186°$. However, significant deviations from this plane are seen, especially in the periphery and on the eastern side of the SMC. In the latter part, two distinct populations are present, separated in distance by as much as 10 kpc. Distant red clump stars are seen in the North of the SMC, and possibly also in the far West; these might be associated with the predicted `Counter-Bridge'. We also present a dust reddening map, which shows that dust generally traces stellar mass. The structure of the intermediate-age stellar component of the SMC bears the imprints of strong interaction with the LMC a few Gyr ago, which cannot be purely tidal but must have involved ram pressure stripping.

arXiv comment16 pages, 11 figures; accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (68)

• Evolution of asymptotic giant branch stars II. Optical to far-infrared isochrones with improved TP-AGB models
• Third-Epoch Magellanic Cloud Proper Motions I: HST/WFC3 data and Orbit Implications
• The Star Formation History of the Small Magellanic Cloud
• The Magellanic Clouds Photometric Survey: The Small Magellanic Cloud Stellar Catalog and Extinction Map
• Magellanic Cloud Structure from Near-IR Surveys I: The Viewing Angles of the LMC
• The VMC Survey - I. Strategy and First Data
• The ACS Nearby Galaxy Survey Treasury IX. Constraining asymptotic giant branch evolution with old metal-poor galaxies
• Population effects on the Red Giant Clump absolute magnitude, and distance determinations to nearby galaxies
• A New Look at the Kinematics of Neutral Hydrogen in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Age Determination of Six Intermediate-age SMC Star Clusters with HST/ACS
• The Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA): Design, Technical Overview and Performance
• K-Band Calibration of the Red Clump Luminosity
• The Spitzer Survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud: FIR Emission and Cold Gas in the SMC
• The State of the Gas and the Relation Between Gas and Star Formation at Low Metallicity: the Small Magellanic Cloud
• The VISTA Science Archive
• The Spitzer Survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud: S3MC Imaging and Photometry in the Mid- and Far-Infrared Wavebands
• Clustering of Local Group distances: publication bias or correlated measurements? I. The Large Magellanic Cloud
• The Tidal Origin of the Magellanic Stream and the Possibility of a Stellar Counterpart
• Population effects on the red giant clump absolute magnitude: The K-band
• New Optical Reddening Maps of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds
• Reddening and metallicity maps of the Milky Way bulge from VVV and 2MASS II. The complete high resolution extinction map and implications for Bulge studies
• The VISTA ZYJHKs Photometric System: Calibration from 2MASS
• The Carnegie Hubble Program: The Distance and Structure of the SMC as Revealed by Mid-infrared Observations of Cepheids
• Clustering of Local Group distances: publication bias or correlated measurements? III. The Small Magellanic Cloud
• The Line-of-Sight Depth of Populous Clusters in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• The 3D structure of the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Depth estimation of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds
• The VMC Survey - XIV. First results on the look-back time star-formation rate tomography of the Small Magellanic Cloud
• The VMC Survey. XXV. The 3D structure of the Small Magellanic Cloud from Classical Cepheids
• Orbits of Massive Satellite Galaxies: I. A Close Look at the Large Magellanic Cloud and a New Orbital History for M33
• The VMC survey - XXXI. The spatially resolved star formation history of the main body of the Small Magellanic Cloud
• The Proper Motion Field of the Small Magellanic Cloud: Kinematic Evidence for its Tidal Disruption
• Clouds, Streams and Bridges. Redrawing the blueprint of the Magellanic System with Gaia DR1
• The VMC Survey IV. The LMC star formation history and disk geometry from four VMC tiles
• The Morphologies of the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Three dimensional maps of the Magellanic Clouds using RR Lyrae Stars and Cepheids II. The Small Magellanic Cloud
• A Tidally-Stripped Stellar Component of the Magellanic Bridge
• Low Surface Brightness Imaging of the Magellanic System: Imprints of Tidal Interactions between the Clouds in the Stellar Periphery
• The Magellanic Stream System: I. Ram-pressure tails and the relics of the collision between the Magellanic Clouds
• The VMC survey - XXVI. Structure of the Small Magellanic Cloud from RR Lyrae stars
• Old Main Sequence Turnoff Photometry in the Small Magellanic Cloud. II. Star Formation History and Its Spatial Gradients
• The star formation history of the Magellanic Clouds derived from long-period variable star counts
• An estimate of the structural parameters of the Large Magellanic Cloud using red clump stars
• Red Giants in the Small Magellanic Cloud. I. Disk and Tidal Stream Kinematics
• Toward a Complete Understanding of the Magellanic Stream Formation
• Empirical calibration of the reddening maps in the Magellanic Clouds
• The Araucaria Project. A Distance Determination to the Local Group Spiral M33 from Near-Infrared Photometry of Cepheid Variables
• Chemical compositions of Four B-type Supergiants in the SMC Wing
• Clouds in Arms
• Metallicity and Physical Conditions in the Magellanic Bridge
• The VMC survey VII. Reddening map of the 30 Doradus field and the structure of the cold interstellar medium
• The VMC Survey - XXIV. Signatures of tidally stripped stellar populations from the inner Small Magellanic Cloud
• Structure of the Large Magellanic Cloud from the Near Infrared magnitudes of Red Clump stars
• The Dust-to-Gas Ratio in the Small Magellanic Cloud Tail
• SMC west halo: a slice of the galaxy that is being tidally stripped? Star clusters trace age and metallicity gradients
• The VMC survey XXX. Stellar proper motions in the central parts of the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Disk of the Small Magellanic Cloud as traced by Cepheids
• Structure of the SMC - Stellar component distribution from 2MASS data
• The VMC Survey. XXIX. Turbulence-Controlled Hierarchical Star Formation in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Formation of the Small Magellanic Cloud: ancient major merger as a solution to the kinematical differences between old stars and HI gas
• Morphology and metallicity of the Small Magellanic Cloud using RRab stars
• The VMC survey - XVII. The proper motion of the Small Magellanic Cloud and of the Milky Way globular cluster 47 Tucanae
• Magellanic Cloud Periphery Carbon Stars IV: The SMC
• RR Lyrae variables in the Small Magellanic Cloud - II. The extended area: chemical and structural analysis
• Bridge over troubled gas: clusters and associations under the SMC and LMC tidal stresses
• The intrinsic reddening of the Magellanic Clouds as traced by background galaxies -- II. The Small Magellanic Cloud
• The Age and Metallicity Dependence of the Near-Infrared Magnitudes of Red Clump Stars
• Distance, reddening and three dimensional structure of the SMC - I: Using RRab stars

Cited by in corpus (20)

• The effect of the LMC on the Milky Way system
• The synchronised dance of the Magellanic Clouds' star formation history
• The VMC Survey -- XLVIII. Classical Cepheids unveil the 3D geometry of the LMC
• The VISCACHA survey -- IV. The SMC West Halo in 8D
• The earliest O-type eclipsing binary in the Small Magellanic Cloud, AzV 476: A comprehensive analysis reveals surprisingly low stellar masses
• Ca II Triplet Spectroscopy of Small Magellanic Cloud Red Giants. V. Abundances and Velocities for 12 Massive Clusters
• The Magellanic Edges Survey III. Kinematics of the disturbed LMC outskirts
• A new method for spatially resolving the turbulence driving mixture in the ISM with application to the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Presence of red giant population in the foreground stellar sub-structure of the Small Magellanic Cloud
• eROSITA calibration and performance verification phase: High-mass X-ray binaries in the Magellanic Clouds
• UVIT Study of the MAgellanic Clouds (U-SMAC) II. A Far-UV catalog of the Small Magellanic Cloud: Morphology and Kinematics of young stellar population
• HI filaments as potential compass needles? Comparing the magnetic field structure of the Small Magellanic Cloud to the orientation of GASKAP-HI filaments
• Kinematics of stellar substructures in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• The intrinsic reddening of the Magellanic Clouds as traced by background galaxies -- III. The Large Magellanic Cloud
• UVIT Study of the MAgellanic Clouds (U-SMAC) I. Recent star formation history and kinematics of the Shell region in the North-Eastern Small Magellanic Cloud
• The red giant branch tip in the SDSS, PS1, JWST, NGRST and Euclid photometric systems. Calibration in optical passbands using Gaia DR3 synthetic photometry
• The YMCA (Yes, Magellanic Clouds Again) survey: probing the outer regions of the Magellanic system with VST
• The VMC survey -- LIII. Data release #7. Complete survey data and data from additional programmes
• A Galactic Transformation -- Understanding the SMC's Structural and Kinematic Disequilibrium
• The orbital dynamics of the LMC and SMC about the Milky Way