Radial velocities of SMC massive stars

J/MNRAS/353/601). The great majority of these stars are of OBA type, tracing the dynamics of the young stellar population.

Dividing the sample into ad hoc `bar' and `wing' samples (north and south, respectively, of the line: delta=-77^{deg}50' + [4{alpha}]', where alpha is in minutes of time) we find that the velocities in the SMC bar show a gradient of 26.3+/-1.6km/s/deg at a position angle of 126+/-4deg. The derived gradient in the bar is robust to the adopted line of demarcation between the two samples. The largest redshifts are found in the SMC wing, in which the velocity distribution appears distinct from that in the bar, most likely a consequence of the interaction between the Magellanic Clouds that is predicted to have occurred 0.2Gyr ago.