THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF DUST AND STELLAR EMISSION OF THE MAGELLANIC CLOUDS

2012/10/31 by Ramin A. Skibba, Ramin Skibba, C. W. Engelbracht +46 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Circumstellar dust #Cosmic dust #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Infrared #Interstellar medium #Luminosity #Metallicity #Photometry (optics) #Physics #Spectral energy distribution #Star formation #Stars #Stellar mass #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.CO

paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0004-637x/761/1/42

15 pages, 18 figures; ApJ, in press; version published in the journal will have higher-resolution figures

arxiv created 2012/10/31 · openalex publication_date 2012/11/20 · arxiv updated 2015/06/11 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We study the emission by dust and stars in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, a pair of low-metallicity nearby galaxies, as traced by their spatially resolved spectral energy distributions. This project combines Herschel Space Observatory PACS and SPIRE far-infrared photometry with other data at infrared and optical wavelengths (the data were obtained as part of the HERschel Inventory of The Agents of Galaxy Evolution survey; PI: M. Meixner). We build maps of dust, stellar luminosity, and mass of both Magellanic Clouds, and analyze the spatial distribution of dust/stellar luminosity and mass ratios. These ratios vary considerably throughout the galaxies, generally between the range 0.01 ⩽ L dust / L * ⩽ 0.6 and 10 −4 ⩽ M dust / M * ⩽ 4 × 10 −3 . We observe that the dust/stellar ratios depend on the interstellar medium environment, such as the distance from currently or previously star-forming regions, and on the intensity of the interstellar radiation field. In addition, we construct star formation rate (SFR) maps, and find that the SFR is correlated with the dust/stellar luminosity and dust temperature in both galaxies, demonstrating the relation between star formation, dust emission, and heating, though these correlations exhibit substantial scatter.

Citations

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Cited by

• PAHs and star formation in the H ii regions of nearby galaxies M83 and M33