Studies of Magellanic Clouds. I. Dimensions and structure of the Large Cloud.
Abstract
. Star counts to m = 14 in and around the Large Cloud indicate an average maximum diameter of not less than = 15 kpc. The total number of stars brighter than mpg = 14.0 (M< -4.7), corrected for foreground, is 4700 of which half are within g from the centroid of the distribution (5h33 , -67?7) located about to the northeast of the geometrical center of the axial bar (5h24 , -69?8). Long exposure photographs disclose in the faint intermediate regions an extensive spiral pattern and in addition outer extensions or streamers stretching up to 5 and from the center of the Cloud in some directions. The inclination of the equatorial plane of the system to the line of sight is estimated at about 5 , the major axis being in position angle 160g An analysis of Harvard data on cepheids suggests that the nearer part of the minor axis is the north- following side, in which case the main spiral arm is trailing in the rotation.
- Publication:
-
The Astronomical Journal
- Pub Date:
- May 1955
- DOI:
- 10.1086/107173
- Bibcode:
- 1955AJ.....60..126D