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Implications of recent measurements of the Milky Way rotation for the orbit of the Large Magellanic Cloud

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2009

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Oxford University Press
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Shattow, Genevieve, and Abraham Loeb. 2009. “Implications of Recent Measurements of the Milky Way Rotation for the Orbit of the Large Magellanic Cloud.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters 392 (1): L21–25. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-3933.2008.00573.x.

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Abstract

We examine the implications of recent measurements of the Milky Way (MW) rotation for the trajectory of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). The similar to 14 +/- 6 per cent increase in the MW circular velocity relative to the International Astronomical Union (IAU) standard of 220 km s(-1) changes the qualitative nature of the inferred LMC orbit. Instead of the LMC being gravitationally unbound, as has been suggested based on a recent measurement of its proper motion, we find that the past orbit of the LMC is naturally confined within the virial boundary of the MW. The orbit is not as tightly bound as in models derived before the LMC proper motion was measured.

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