![]() Here we show evidence for this Magellanic Corona with a potential direct detection in highly ionized oxygen (O +5) and indirectly by means of triply ionized carbon and silicon, seen in ultraviolet (UV) absorption towards background quasars. Such a corona would have shaped the formation of the Magellanic Stream 7, a tidal gas structure extending over 200° across the sky 2, 8, 9 that is bringing in metal-poor gas to the Milky Way 10. Recent measurements of a high mass for the LMC ( M halo ≈ 10 11.1–11.4 M ⊙) 3, 4, 5, 6 imply that the LMC should host a Magellanic Corona: a collisionally ionized, warm-hot gaseous halo at the virial temperature (10 5.3–5.5 K) initially extending out to the virial radius (100–130 kiloparsecs (kpc)). They are probably on their first passage on an infalling orbit towards our Galaxy 1 and trace the continuing dynamics of the Local Group 2. The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) are the closest massive satellite galaxies of the Milky Way.
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