Media Information
 
 
 
Collection:
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection
Title:
The Magellanic Stream
Explanation:
Spanning the sky behind the majestic Clouds of Magellan [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] is an unusual stream of gas: the Magellanic Stream [ http://adsabs.harva…]. The origin of this gas might hold a clue to origin and fate of our Milky Way [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]'s most famous satellite galaxies: the LMC [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] and the SMC [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. Two leading genesis hypotheses have surfaced: that the stream was created by gas stripped off [ http://adsabs.harva…] these galaxies as they passed through the halo of our Milky Way, or that the stream was created by the differential gravitational tug [ http://adsabs.harva…] of the Milky Way. Measurements of slight angular motions by the Hipparcos satellite [ http://astro.estec.…] have indicated that the Clouds are leading the Stream. Now, recent radio measurements [ http://www.csiro.au…] have located fresh gas emerging from the Clouds, bolstering the later, tidal explanation. Most probably, in a few hundred million years, the Magellanic Clouds [ http://www.seds.org…] themselves will fall victim to this same tidal force.
Credit and Copyright:
Dallas Parr (CSIRO [ http://www.csiro.au/])
keyword:
Milky Way
keyword:
LMC
keyword:
SMC
facet_where:
Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
facet_what:
Magellan
facet_what:
Hipparcos
facet_what:
Genesis
original url:
http://antwrp.gsfc.…
UID:
SPD-APOD-ap980826

The Magellanic Stream
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