J/A+A/709/A10ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/709/A10CDSFicara F.Ripepi V.Cignoni M.Gatto M.Marconi M.Tosi M.,Bellazzini MGrebel E. K.Cioni M.-R.Tortora C.Mercurio A.2026-05-19T14:14:26Z2026-04-28T11:55:02ZCDS support team

CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France

cds-question@unistra.frmagellanic-cloudssurveysphotometryvisible-astronomyThe Magellanic Clouds (MCs) offer a unique laboratory for studying galaxy interaction and the evolution of dwarf galaxies. The star formation history (SFH), which traces when and how stars formed, provides powerful constraints for the dynamical modelling of the system's past interactions and the processes of stripping and triggered star formation in tidally influenced environments. We aim to reconstruct the SFH of the Magellanic Bridge, the gaseous and stellar stream connecting the Magellanic Clouds. We used data from the deep optical STEP survey, which covers 54deg^2^ across the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) and the Bridge, reaching stars below the oldest main-sequence turnoff at the distance of the MCs. We applied the synthetic colour-magnitude diagram technique to 14deg^2^ of STEP data. We constructed two libraries of synthetic stellar populations based on the PARSEC-COLIBRI and BaSTI stellar evolutionary models, with metallicities in the range -2.0<=[Fe/H]<=0 across the whole Hubble time. We find a clear peak of recent star formation ~100Myr ago in the Magellanic Bridge, which becomes increasingly pronounced towards the SMC. The low metallicity of this population suggests that it formed from gas stripped from the SMC during its most recent close encounter with the LMC. In the eastern part of the Bridge (LMC side), star formation peaks at earlier times, around 10Gyr and 2Gyr ago. We estimate a total stellar mass in the Bridge of (5.1+/-0.2)x10^5^M_{sun}_ and a present-day stellar metallicity of [$Fe/H]~-0.6dex, close to SMC value.2026A&A...709A..10Fhttps://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/709/A10CatalogResearchIsServedByTAP VizieR generic serviceIsServedByConesearch servicehttps://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.htmlhttps://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/709/A10https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/709/A10http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/709/A10https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/A+A/709/A10https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/A+A/709/A10http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/A+A/709/A10GETtext/xml+votablehttps://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tapCone search capability for table J/A+A/709/A10/table1 (Magellanic Bridge photometric catalogue)https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/conesearch/J/A+A/709/A10/table1?https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/conesearch/J/A+A/709/A10/table1?http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/conesearch/J/A+A/709/A10/table1?GETtext/xml+votable180.050000true35.40724-72.93630.0055555555555555565/8223 8243-8244 8248 8250 6/32887 32891 32949 32951 32957 32967 32970-32971 32980-32982 32984-32986 32996-32998 33004 33058-33059 33064-33066https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/moc/J/A+A/709/A10?format=asciiOpticaldefaultJ/A+A/709/A10/table1Magellanic Bridge photometric cataloguerecnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintIdSource ID, STEP-JHHMMSS.ss+DDMMSS.smeta.id;meta.maincharRAJ2000Right ascension (J2000.0)degpos.eq.ra;meta.mainindexedDEJ2000Declination (J2000.0)degpos.eq.dec;meta.mainindexedgmagCalibrated magnitude in the g-filtermagphot.mag;em.opt.Bfloate_gmag? Uncertainty of the magnitude in the g-filtermagstat.error;phot.magdoublenullableimagCalibrated magnitude in the i-filtermagphot.mag;em.opt.Idoublee_imag? Uncertainty of the magnitude in the i-filtermagstat.error;phot.magdoublenullablechiCHI output parameter of DAOPHOTIV/ALLSTARstat.fit.paramfloatsharpSHARP output parameter of DAOPHOTIV/ALLSTARstat.fit.paramfloat