Warm, Ionized Gas Revealed in the Magellanic Bridge Tidal Remnant: Constraining the Baryon Content and the Escaping Ionizing Photons around Dwarf Galaxies
Abstract
Galaxy interactions have greatly disturbed and redistributed the gas in the Magellanic System throughout the halos of the Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds. In this talk, we will discuss the results of the highest sensitivity and kinematically resolved H-alpha emission-line survey of the Magellanic Bridge using the Wisconsin H-alpha Mapper. This census allows us to investigate the baryon content, density, kinematics, morphology, source of ionization, and fate of this tidal remnant. The H-alpha detections across the entire Magellanic Bridge enables us to place constraints on the fraction of ionizing photons that escape from these galaxies; this is an important parameter for determining the influence that dwarf galaxies had during the epoch of reionization and the contribution of ionizing photons they currently supply to the extragalactic background. Determining the properties of tidal debris is key for understanding the evolution of these galaxies and other tidally disturbed systems.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #221
- Pub Date:
- January 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013AAS...22140402B