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On the Magellanic Stream, the Mass of the Galaxy and the Age of the Universe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2015

D. Lynden-Bell
D. Lynden-Bell*
Affiliation:
Institute of Astronomy, the Observatories, Cambridge CB3 0HA, England

Extract

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The Magellanic stream has been fitted with high accuracy in both position and velocity by the tidal tearing of a Magellanic Cloud. To get the good fit to the high velocity at the stream's tip at a suitable distance from the Galaxy we need either a large mass for the Galaxy, or a large circular velocity for the Sun, or both. An extragalactic method of determining the circular velocity yields the high value of Vc = 294 ± 42 km/sec and an orbit of poor accuracy for the relative motion of the Galaxy and the Andromeda nebula. Very large masses are needed if Andromeda and the Galaxy were formed together. A new direct determination of Hubble's constant from the “superluminal” expansion observed in VLB radio sources gives an age of the Universe of 9 billion years. Either larger masses still or smaller distances within the local group are necessary to bring Andromeda back towards us in so short a time.

Type
I. Galaxies in Small Groups
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 79: The Large Scale Structure of the Universe , 1978 , pp. 123 - 130
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1978 

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