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The VMC Survey - XXXIV. Morphology of Stellar Populations in the Magellanic Clouds

El Youssoufi, Dalal; Cioni, Maria-Rosa L; Bell, Cameron P M; Rubele, Stefano; Bekki, Kenji; de Grijs, Richard; Girardi, Léo; Ivanov, Valentin D; Matijevic, Gal; Niederhofer, Florian; Oliveira, Joana M; Ripepi, Vincenzo; Subramanian, Smitha; Van Loon, Jacco Th

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Authors

Dalal El Youssoufi

Maria-Rosa L Cioni

Cameron P M Bell

Stefano Rubele

Kenji Bekki

Richard de Grijs

Léo Girardi

Valentin D Ivanov

Gal Matijevic

Florian Niederhofer

Vincenzo Ripepi

Smitha Subramanian



Abstract

The Magellanic Clouds are nearby dwarf irregular galaxies whose morphologies show different properties when traced by different stellar populations, making them an important laboratory for studying galaxy morphologies. We study the morphology of the Magellanic Clouds using data from the VISTA survey of the Magellanic Clouds system (VMC). We used about 10 and 2.5 million sources across an area of ~105 deg2 and ~42 deg2 towards the Large and Small Magellanic Cloud (LMC and SMC), respectively. We estimated median ages of stellar populations occupying different regions of the near-infrared (J - Ks, Ks) colour-magnitude diagram. Morphological maps were produced and detailed features in the central regions were characterised for the first time with bins corresponding to a spatial resolution of 0.13 kpc (LMC) and 0.16 kpc (SMC). In the LMC, we find that main sequence stars show coherent structures that grow with age and trace the multiple spiral arms of the galaxy, star forming regions become dimmer as we progress in age, while supergiant stars are centrally concentrated. Intermediate-age stars, despite tracing a regular and symmetrical morphology, show central clumps and hints of spiral arms. In the SMC, young main sequence stars depict a broken bar. Intermediate-age populations show signatures of elongation towards the Magellanic Bridge that can be attributed to the LMC-SMC interaction ~200 Myr ago. They also show irregular central features suggesting that the inner SMC has also been influenced by tidal interactions.

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Aug 20, 2019
Online Publication Date Sep 3, 2019
Publication Date 2019-11
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Print ISSN 0035-8711
Publisher Oxford University Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 490
Issue 1
Pages 1076-1093
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz2400
Keywords galaxies: interactions, Magellanic Clouds, galaxies: photometry, galaxies: stellar content
Publisher URL https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz2400

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