Exploring the Very Extended Low-surface-brightness Stellar Populations of the Large Magellanic Cloud with SMASH
Artículo
![Thumbnail](/themes/Mirage2/images/cubierta.jpg)
Open/ Download
Publication date
2019Metadata
Show full item record
Cómo citar
Nidever, David L.
Cómo citar
Exploring the Very Extended Low-surface-brightness Stellar Populations of the Large Magellanic Cloud with SMASH
Author
- Nidever, David L.;
- Olsen, Knut;
- Choi, Yumi;
- Boer, Thomas J. L. De;
- Blum, Robert D.;
- Bell, Eric F.;
- Zaritsky, Dennis;
- Martín, Nicolás F.;
- Saha, Abhijit;
- Conn, Blair C.;
- Besla, Gurtina;
- Marel, Roeland P. Van Der;
- Noël, Noelia E. D.;
- Monachesi, Antonela;
- Stringfellow, Guy S.;
- Massana, Pol;
- Cioni, María Rosa L.;
- Gallart, Carme;
- Monelli, Matteo;
- Martínez Delgado, David;
- Muñoz Vidal, Ricardo Rodrigo;
- Majewski, Steven R.;
- Vivas, A. Katherina;
- Walker, Alistair R.;
- Kaleida, Catherine;
- Chu, You-Hua;
Abstract
We present the detection of very extended stellar populations around the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) out to R ∼ 21°, or ∼18.5 kpc at the LMC distance of 50 kpc, as detected in the Survey of the Magellanic Stellar History (SMASH) performed with the Dark Energy Camera on the NOAO Blanco 4 m Telescope. The deep (g ∼ 24) SMASH color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) clearly reveal old (∼9 Gyr), metal-poor ([Fe/H] ≈ -0.8 dex) main-sequence stars at a distance of ∼50 kpc. The surface brightness of these detections is extremely low with our most distant detection at Σ g ≈ 34 mag arcsec -2 . The SMASH radial density profile breaks from the inner LMC exponential decline at ∼13°-15°and a second component at larger radii has a shallower slope with power-law index α = -2.2 that contributes ∼0.4% of the LMC's total stellar mass. In addition, the SMASH densities exhibit large scatter around our best-fit model of ∼70% indicating that the envelope of stellar material in the LMC periphery is highly disturbed. We also use data from the NOAO Source catalog to map the LMC main-sequence populations at intermediate radii and detect a steep dropoff in density on the eastern side of the LMC (at R ≈ 8°) as well as an extended structure to the far northeast. These combined results confirm the existence of a very extended, low-density envelope of stellar material with a disturbed shape around the LMC. The exact origin of this structure remains unclear, but the leading options include an accreted halo or tidally stripped outer disk material.
Indexation
Artículo de publicación SCOPUS
Identifier
URI: https://repositorio.uchile.cl/handle/2250/172065
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/aafaf7
ISSN: 15384357
0004637X
Quote Item
Astrophysical Journal, Volumen 874, Issue 2, 2019,
Collections