TY - JOUR
T1 - The deepest hubble space telescope far-ultraviolet observations in the large magellanic cloud
AU - Almoznino, Elhanan
AU - Brosch, Noah
AU - Shara, Michael
AU - Zurek, David
PY - 2005/2/21
Y1 - 2005/2/21
N2 - We present a new analysis of the deepest pure-ultraviolet (UV) observations with the highest angular resolution ever performed. A set of 12 exposures with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) WFPC2 and F160BW filter obtained in parallel observing mode, which cover ∼12 arcmin2 in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), north of the bar and in the 'general field' region of the LMC, contain stars with far-UV monochromatic magnitudes as faint as 22 mag. The 198 detected UV sources represent an accumulated exposure of ≥ 2 × 104 s and reveal stars as faint as muv ≃ 20 mag. We combine these observations with deep UBVI charge-coupled device (CCD) imaging of the same region reaching as faint as V ≃ 26 mag, and reselect probable optical counterparts for the UV sources. After a two-stage search-and-analysis process, we detect robust counterparts for 129 stars. These are mostly upper main-sequence stars, from early B to early A spectral classes, with several F stars. We point out the lack of blue supergiants, which could have been easily detected in our survey. We measure a foreground extinction E(B - V) ≃ 0.08 mag by Galactic dust and a surface density of star formation rate twice the average Galactic value. These observations indicate that relatively recent star formation took place even off the bar of the LMC.
AB - We present a new analysis of the deepest pure-ultraviolet (UV) observations with the highest angular resolution ever performed. A set of 12 exposures with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) WFPC2 and F160BW filter obtained in parallel observing mode, which cover ∼12 arcmin2 in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), north of the bar and in the 'general field' region of the LMC, contain stars with far-UV monochromatic magnitudes as faint as 22 mag. The 198 detected UV sources represent an accumulated exposure of ≥ 2 × 104 s and reveal stars as faint as muv ≃ 20 mag. We combine these observations with deep UBVI charge-coupled device (CCD) imaging of the same region reaching as faint as V ≃ 26 mag, and reselect probable optical counterparts for the UV sources. After a two-stage search-and-analysis process, we detect robust counterparts for 129 stars. These are mostly upper main-sequence stars, from early B to early A spectral classes, with several F stars. We point out the lack of blue supergiants, which could have been easily detected in our survey. We measure a foreground extinction E(B - V) ≃ 0.08 mag by Galactic dust and a surface density of star formation rate twice the average Galactic value. These observations indicate that relatively recent star formation took place even off the bar of the LMC.
KW - Galaxies: individual: Large Magellanic Cloud
KW - Galaxies: irregular
KW - Galaxies: stellar content
KW - Stars: formation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=14544287725&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.08690.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.08690.x
M3 - ???researchoutput.researchoutputtypes.contributiontojournal.article???
AN - SCOPUS:14544287725
VL - 357
SP - 645
EP - 655
JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
SN - 0035-8711
IS - 2
ER -