Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T18:59:46.096Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

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 

References

1. Lynden-Bell, D.: 1976, Monthly Notices Roy. Astron. Soc. 174, p.695.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2. Hartwick, D., and Sargent, W.L.W.: 1977, preprint Astrophys. J. Google Scholar
3. Lind, D.N.C., and Lynden-Bell, D.: 1977, Monthly Notices Roy. Astron. Soc. Google Scholar
4. Davies, R.D., and Wright, A.E.: 1977, Monthly Notices Roy. Astron. Soc. 180, p.71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5. Lynden-Bell, D., and Lin, D.N.C.: 1977, Monthly Notices Roy. Astron. Soc. 181, p.Google Scholar
6. Tully, R.B., and Fisher, J.R.: 1977, Astron. Astrophys. 54, p.661.Google Scholar
7. Lynden-Bell, D.: 1977, Nature in press.Google Scholar
8. Lynden-Bell, D.: 1977, Proc. of the Cambridge NATO Summer School (editors Mitton, S. and Hazard, C.), on Quasars.Google Scholar
9. Cohen, M.H.: 1977, Nature, 268, p.405.Google Scholar
10. Cohen, M.H., Linfield, R.P., Moffet, A.T., Romney, J.D., Seielstad, G.A., Kellermann, K.I., Shaffer, D.B., Pauliny-Toth, I.I.K., Preuss, E., Witzel, A., Schilizzi, R.T., Geldzahler, B.J. 1977, Nature, 268, p.405.CrossRefGoogle Scholar