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Warped and Hooked: Mapping the Magellanic Clouds in Three Dimensions Using Red Clump Stars

  • Authors: Slater J. Oden, David L. Nidever, Joshua Povick, Pol Massana, Yumi Choi, Roeland P. van der Marel, Maria-Rosa L. Cioni, Joanna Sakowska, Knut A. G. Olsen, Lara Cullinane, Danny Horta, Andres Almeida, J. A. Carballo-Bello, D. Crnojević, P. S. Ferguson, C. E. Martínez-Vázquez, G. E. Medina, B. Mutlu-Pakdil, M. Navabi, A. B. Pace, A. H. Riley, Guy S. Stringfellow, A. K. Vivas, David J. James

Slater J. Oden et al 2026 The Astrophysical Journal 1003 .

  • Provider: AAS Journals

Caption: Figure 10.

Median distance map of the MCs derived from RC stars, corrected for both metallicity and age effects, plotted in MS coordinates. The LMC, centered near (LMS, BMS) ∼ (0°, 2°), has a median distance of ∼50.6 kpc, while the SMC, centered near (LMS, BMS) ∼ (−15°, −12°), has a median distance of ∼60.8 kpc. The black contour lines trace the RC stellar number density to aid in the visualization of periphery features. Common periphery features are labeled. Black “×” symbols indicate the stellar dynamical centers for the LMC and SMC derived in Section 3.4. A clear offset between the MCs is visible, along with hints of structure such as the LMC’s outer warp and the SMC’s elongation. This distance map is publicly available via Zenodo at DOI:10.5281/zenodo.18330355, with the associated code maintained on GitHub at https://github.com/slateroden/XMC_DistanceMap, released under the MIT License.

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