  Dwarf galaxies enable us to study the early phases of galaxy evolution and
are key to many open questions about the hierarchical structure of the
Universe. The Large and Small Magellanic Cloud (LMC and SMC) are the most
luminous dwarf galaxy satellites of the Milky Way (MW). They are most likely
gravitationally bound to each other, and their last interaction occurred about
200 Myr ago. Also, they are in an early phase of minor merging with the MW and
will impact the Galactic structure in the future because of their relatively
large mass. However, there are still major uncertainties regarding their origin
and their interactions with one another and with the Milky Way. We
cross-correlated the VMC and Gaia DR2 data to select a sample of stars that
likely belong to the Magellanic Bridge, a feature formed of gas and stars which
is connecting the LMC and the SMC. We removed potential MW foreground stars
using a combination of parallax and colour-magnitude criteria and calculated
the proper motions of the Bridge member stars. Our analysis supports a motion
of star towards the LMC, which was found to be in good agreement with a
dynamical simulation, of the SMC being stripped by the LMC.

Astrophysics of Galaxies