Nitya Kallivayalil

Title: The Motions of the Magellanic Clouds: New Insights into an Enigmatic System

Abstract: It is expected from current models of hierarchical structure formation that the interaction between the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC & SMC) and the Milky Way (MW) will have played an important role in the dynamical evolution of the MW's outer parts. However, new high-precision velocities for the Clouds using HST are ~100 km/s higher than those used in all theoretical models thus far: the implications of which are very unexpected in light of our previous understanding of the MW-LMC-SMC system. I will discuss these implications as well as ongoing efforts to confirm the new velocities.