DOE OSTI · 3374211
Warped and Hooked: Mapping the Magellanic Clouds in Three Dimensions Using Red Clump Stars
Abstract
The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) are the Milky Way’s nearest interacting galaxy pair, offering a unique laboratory for studying tidal effects on galactic disks. Despite extensive survey efforts, the 3D geometry of the Magellanic Clouds, particularly the putative warp of the LMC, remains poorly constrained due to incompleteness in their crowded centers and the low stellar density of their peripheries, which demand wide-field coverage. Using red clump (RC) stars as standard candles, corrected for age- and metallicity-dependent population effects with empirically calibrated color–magnitude relations and spatially resolved star formation histories, we construct the most detailed distance map of the Magellanic system to date. Based on ∼2.3 million RC stars from Gaia Data Release 3 combined with modern reddening maps, we measure median heliocentric distances of 50.62 ± 2.32 kpc for the LMC (to ∼23°) and 60.75 ± 2.85 kpc for the SMC (to ∼12°). The maps reveal substructures including the LMC Northern Arm, southern hooks, the Magellanic Bridge, and SMC peripheral overdensities, with refreshed distance estimates. Fitting the LMC disk within 7° yields a global inclination of $i=25\mathop{.}\limits^{^\circ }32\pm 0\mathop{.}\limits^{^\circ }10$ and a line-of-nodes position angle of $\theta = 142\mathop{.}\limits^{^\circ }34\pm 0\mathop{.}\limits^{^\circ }21$. Most strikingly, we find the LMC periphery is warped azimuthally into a U-shaped structure reaching a vertical amplitude of ∼7 kpc at a radius of ∼15 kpc. In future work, we will perform detailed comparisons with live N-body simulations to assess possible formation scenarios for the LMC warp.
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Oden, Slater J. [Montana State Univ., Bozeman, MT (United States)] (ORCID:0009000090371697), Nidever, David L. [Montana State Univ., Bozeman, MT (United States); National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab), Tucson, AZ (United States)] (ORCID:0000000217933689), Povick, Joshua [Lund Univ. (Sweden). Lund Observatory] (ORCID:0000000265537082), Massana, Pol [Montana State Univ., Bozeman, MT (United States); National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab), La Serana (Chile)] (ORCID:0000000280937471), Choi, Yumi [National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab), Tucson, AZ (United States)] (ORCID:0000000316801884), van der Marel, Roeland P. [Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD (United States); Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD (United States)] (ORCID:0000000178277825), Cioni, Maria-Rosa L. [Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), Potsdam (Germany)] (ORCID:000000026797696X), Sakowska, Joanna [Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Granada (Spain). Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia] (ORCID:0000000215941466), Olsen, Knut A. G. [National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab), Tucson, AZ (United States)] (ORCID:0000000271348296), Cullinane, Lara [Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP), Potsdam (Germany)] (ORCID:0000000185360547), Horta, Danny [Univ. of Edinburgh, Scotland (United Kingdom)] (ORCID:0000000318562151), Almeida, Andres [Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA (United States)] (ORCID:0009000007332479), Carballo-Bello, J. A. [University of Tarapacá (Chile)] (ORCID:000000023690105X), Crnojević, D. [Univ. of Tampa, FL (United States)] (ORCID:0000000217634128), Ferguson, P. S. [Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000169571627), Martínez-Vázquez, C. E. [National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab), Hilo, HI (United States)] (ORCID:0000000291447726), Medina, G. E. [Univ. of Toronto, ON (Canada)] (ORCID:0000000301059576), Mutlu-Pakdil, B. [Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH (United States)] (ORCID:0000000196494815), Navabi, M. [Univ. of Surrey, Guildford (United Kingdom)] (ORCID:0000000194385228), Pace, A. B. [Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000260218760), Riley, A. H. [Lund Univ. (Sweden). Lund Observatory] (ORCID:0000000158055766), Stringfellow, Guy S. [Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)] (ORCID:0000000314793059), Vivas, A. K. [Montana State Univ., Bozeman, MT (United States)] (ORCID:0000000343416172), James, David J. [Astraveo, LLC, Gloucester, MA (United States); Applied Materials Inc., Gloucester, MA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000151604486). 2026-05-11. Warped and Hooked: Mapping the Magellanic Clouds in Three Dimensions Using Red Clump Stars. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357%2Fae5c9e
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