Exploring the Extended Structure surrounding the Magellanic Clouds

Abhijit Saha
National Optical Astronomy Observatory
10 February 2010

I will describe a multi-band imaging survey of select fields around the Large & Small Magellanic Clouds being done with the MOSAIC imager on the Blanco 4m telescope at CTIO. The survey is optimized for the detection of extended structure, with the capability of discriminating metallicities and ages from the stellar photometry from these data, by measuring stars well past (fainter than) the turn-off luminosity of old globular clusters. We are able to trace the structure to unprecedented levels, and are confronted with a few unexpected (but not entirely surprising) revelations.

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