Kinematics of SMC carbon stars

This first set of results includes radial velocities for 71 carbon stars, with an individual precision of +/-2-5km/s. The mean heliocentric velocity of the stars (excluding one very high velocity star) is 149.3+/-3.0km/s with a velocity dispersion of 25.2+/-2.1km/s.

These values drop to 145.5+/-2.7km/s and 20.6+/-1.9km/s respectively, if we exclude the stars belonging to the Outer Wing. The velocity distribution does not show the multiple peaks seen in some samples of Population I objects. The mass of the SMC as inferred from the above velocity dispersion (without the outer Wing stars) is =~1.2x10^9^M_{sun}_.