René Méndez Astrónomo DAS - U de Chile

A group of astronomers from national and international universities, including the academic from the Department of Astronomy of the U. of Chile, René Méndez, discovered young stars in the periphery of the Large Magellanic Cloud, which indicates that the star formation in the zone is the product of unconventional mechanisms. The research was published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

"We wanted to find out if, beyond the apparent disk of the Large Magellanic Cloud, stars could form due to the interaction with another satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, the Small Magellanic Cloud," said René Méndez.

The academic explains that the gravitational interaction between these galaxies, together with the interaction of both with the Milky Way, has generated pressure waves that move through space and compress the material in some areas. This is because the density in the area of the Large Cloud of Magallanes and its formation is stellar in the region, not by gravitational collapse of a zone of high gas density, which is the conventional system, but as a product of the interaction.

To conclude, the scientific team worked with 31 young stars extracted from a sample of six thousand. Finally, after measuring the radial velocities, stellar parameters, distances and ages, they determined that six belonged to the periphery of the Large Magellanic Cloud.

"The interesting thing is that these stars are very far from the center, far beyond where early objects have been discovered, but given their speeds and dispersions, they must have been born in that place," said the expert, and he added that if these stars were born on the disk, and then they were expelled, they would have a very high velocity, which does not agree with the measurements made by the researchers.

"His kinematics are totally consistent with a regular movement in the disk of the Large Magellanic Cloud, that is, they are objects of the disc and they are not escaping from the center," Mendez pointed out.

The density of the gas where these stars are located is very low compared to the regions where they are usually created; the gravitational interaction is the cause of the star formation in the area. "This is extraordinary, because the clues about the interaction between the big cloud and the small cloud, and in addition, it is the first time that these stars are discovered in the periphery of the Large Magellanic Cloud", stressed the researcher.