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April 21, 2026
Dear all,
On Tuesday, 21 April 2026 Richard Brooks and Óscar Jiménez Arranz will give a talk at NBB.
Starting time 12:00 with speaker Richard Brooks:
Title: The effects of the Milky Way — Large Magellanic Cloud interaction on stellar streams
Abstract: The recent infall of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is reshaping the Milky Way’s dark matter halo, leaving imprints on stellar streams. Using time-evolving Milky Way–LMC simulations, I will show how changes to stream properties depend on their radial distance and on-sky location and demonstrate whether they are driven by the direct stream–LMC interaction and/or the indirect Milky Way halo response. In the outer halo, direct stream–LMC encounters increase the fraction of misaligned stream velocities by ~25%, with the strongest effects aligning with the LMC’s current position. In the inner halo, changes to stream properties are dominated by the Milky Way halo’s dipole response. I will show that fiducial Milky Way–LMC models agree with data from the Dark Energy Survey, and make predictions for the Vera Rubin Observatory. Future stream measurements will deepen our understanding of dark matter and the properties of the LMC.
🍕Pizza served around 12:30
Starting time at 12:40 with speaker Óscar Jiménez Arranz:
Title: The Magellanic Clouds with high resolution glasses
Abstract: The exquisite astrometric dataset provided by Gaia DR3 offers an unprecedented opportunity to use the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC) as unique laboratories for testing and refining methodologies and models. Neural network–based classification strategies enable the selection of LMC and SMC stellar samples with less than 10% contamination from the Milky Way. Leveraging this dataset, the LMC has become the first galaxy for which we can map the 3D velocity field across its entire disc, determine its bar pattern speed, and even reconstruct its 3D structure. Moreover, the same data allow us to identify and study candidate stellar streams associated with the Clouds, providing new insights into their past interactions and dynamical evolution. In this talk, I will revisit how Gaia has fundamentally transformed our understanding of the Magellanic Clouds.
Cheers from Adriana Dropulic and Sarah Pearson ⭐
