The Magellanic system comprises the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the Small
Magellanic Cloud (SMC), and the less frequently observed Magellanic Bridge and
Magellanic Stream. The Bridge is traced by neutral gas and has an observed
stellar component, while the Stream consists of gas only, with no observed
stellar counterpart to date. This study uses catalogues created in the
direction of the Bridge from 2MASS and WISE to investigate the stellar content
of the Magellanic Bridge. Catalogues were created and colour-magnitude and two
colour diagrams were analysed. A study was also carried out on removing the
Galactic foreground population in the direction of the Magellanic Bridge, which
was an important consideration due to the low stellar density within the
Bridge. This study finds that the Magellanic Bridge contains a candidate older
stellar population in addition to the younger population already known. The
formation of the Magellanic Bridge is likely to have occurred from a tidal
event between the LMC and SMC drawing most of the material into it from the
SMC. An older population in the Bridge indicates that a stellar content was
drawn in during its formation together with a gas component.Comment: 11 pages, 16 figures, accepted by A&A on 17th Jan 201
