KINEMATICS IN THE OUTER PARTS OF THE SMC

Extensive studies of red horizontal branch (clump) stars in the outer parts of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) have suggested the presence of a large line-of-sight depth in the north-eastern region. A sample of red horizontal branch stars in the area of maximum depth was observed in 1989 December and 1990 December with the multi-object spectroscopic facility Autofib at the 3.9-m Anglo-Australian Telescope, with the purpose of deriving the velocity distribution for these stars. The data show a well-defined correlation between distance along the line of sight and radial velocity (corresponding to 8 km s-1 kpc-1), which may be interpreted as the result of the tidal interaction between the SMC and the LMC.