KINEMATICS OF CARBON STARS IN THE OUTER REGIONS OF THE SMALL MAGELLANIC CLOUD

We present a radial velocity survey of a sample of the field populatio n of carbon stars in the outer parts of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SM C). This first set of results includes radial velocities for 71 carbon stars, with an individual precision of +/-2 - 5 km/s. The mean helioc entric velocity of the stars (excluding one very high velocity star) i s 149.3 +/- 3.0 km/s with a velocity dispersion of 25.2 +/- 2.1 km/s. These values drop to 145.5 +/- 2.7 km/s and 20.6 +/- 1.9 km/s respecti vely, if we exclude the stars belonging to the Outer Wing. The velocit y distribution does not show the multiple peaks seen in some samples o f Population I objects. The mass of the SMC as inferred from the above velocity dispersion (without the outer Wing stars) is similar or equa l to 1.2 10(9) M..