I heard that the Small Magellanic Cloud has two parts rushing away from each other. The front of the Cloud that we can see is being raced away from by the back part. 1) Is this true? 2)Are the two parts together or partly together now but moving away, like sifting through and past each other, or are they already apart and on the move? 3)I tried several sites for the SMC but they don’t talk about any of this at all. I did learn that the SMC is presented like a cigar end to us instead of as the side of the cigar, does this mean that it might be bigger when all is said and done than the Large Magellanic Cloud? 4)The articles say that the two Magellanic Clouds are in the Magellanic Stream but they never say which direction this stream and its galaxies are going in–for instance are they streaming in the same direction as the Milky Way GAlaxy is spinning or in the opposite direction, and are they staying in the plane of the disk of the Milky Way?
The Small Cloud of Magellan.
Large and small clouds.
There’s other motion as well. From this search:
- From the first cite, it seems the disruption is passing as a wave, so there’ll be a clear line demarking the two sides.
- I’ve no idea which has more stars. At that distance it’s probably still hard to get a good count. ???
- Spectral lineshifts only let you determine velocity towards or away from the observer. Transverse motion is much harder. This looks to be the directional information you want, but interpreting it is likely make your head hurt, it did mine.