New Survey of Magellanic Clouds Aims to Uncover Cosmic Mysteries

A new five-year survey of the Magellanic Clouds, led by the Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam, aims to uncover the formation and evolution of these satellite galaxies of the Milky Way. The Large Magellanic Cloud is approximately 163,000 light-years away, while the Small Magellanic Cloud is about 206,000 light-years away.

The survey will utilize the four-meter Multi-Object Spectrograph Telescope, 4MOST, attached to the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy, VISTA, at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. Full science operations for 4MOST are scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2026, after it saw first light in October and is currently in the commissioning phase.

Dr. Lara Cullinane, a post-doc at AIP, will head the new research group, focusing on the photometric, kinematic, and chemical properties of individual stars. The research will analyze the kinematics and abundances of stellar populations within the Magellanic Clouds, especially their outskirts, through the One Thousand and One Magellanic Fields survey, which will gather spectra from about half a million stars.

This survey is designed to address the lack of high-resolution spectroscopic data that has limited previous studies of the Clouds. The Magellanic Clouds are characterized by being more gas-rich than the Milky Way but with lower metallicity and episodic star formation bursts.

Current data from the ESA's Gaia mission suggests that the Clouds may be on their first passage by the Milky Way, raising questions about the origin of the Magellanic Stream and the Leading Arm, which may have resulted from interactions between the Clouds or with the Milky Way.

The findings from this survey could provide significant insights into galaxy evolution and the nature of dark matter.