The ‘High Velocity Cloud’ Origin of the Magellanic System

Abstract

AbstractIt is believed that the splitting of the SMC into two fragments and the production of the Inter-Cloud gas and the Magellanic Stream occurred in the one event 4 × 108 years ago. This event was a collision between the LMC and SMC. This time is too short for the Stream to be tidal, or be the result of stripping of the Inter-Cloud gas by a diffuse gaseous halo. It is proposed that the clouds in the Stream are the results of collisions between the Inter-Cloud gas and HVCs in the Galactic halo. A model of this process accounts for all of the observational features of the Stream. Observations of HVCs in the path of the Magellanic Clouds are used to predict the development of the Stream. The HVCs in our halo are thought to be a result of a collision of a galaxy with our Galaxy 6 × 109 years ago.