HERschel key program heritage: A far-infrared source catalog for the Magellanic Clouds

Journal Article · Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 2014 · Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-6256/148/6/124· OSTI ID:22342207

Seale, Jonathan P.; Meixner, Margaret; Sewiło, Marta ^[1]; Babler, Brian ^[2]; Engelbracht, Charles W.; Misselt, Karl; Montiel, Edward ^[3]; Gordon, Karl; Roman-Duval, Julia ^[4]; Hony, Sacha; Okumura, Koryo; Panuzzo, Pasquale; Sauvage, Marc ^[5]; Boyer, Martha L. ^[6]; Chen, C.-H. Rosie ^[7]; Indebetouw, Remy ^[8]; Matsuura, Mikako ^[9]; Oliveira, Joana M.; Loon, Jacco Th. van ^[10]; Srinivasan, Sundar ^[11] ; others, and

---

1. The Johns Hopkins University, Department of Physics and Astronomy, 366 Bloomberg Center, 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
2. Department of Astronomy, 475 North Charter St., University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706 (United States)
3. Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 North Cherry Ave., Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States)
4. Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
5. CEA, Laboratoire AIM, Irfu/SAp, Orme des Merisiers, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette (France)
6. Observational Cosmology Laboratory, Code 665, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
7. Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, D-53121 Bonn (Germany)
8. National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 520 Edgemont Road Charlottesville, VA 22903 (United States)
9. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT (United Kingdom)
10. School of Physical and Geographical Sciences, Lennard-Jones Laboratories, Keele University, Staffordshire ST5 5BG (United Kingdom)
11. UPMC-CNRS UMR7095, Institute d'Astrophysique de Paris, F-75014 Paris (France)

Observations from the HERschel Inventory of the Agents of Galaxy Evolution (HERITAGE) have been used to identify dusty populations of sources in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds (LMC and SMC). We conducted the study using the HERITAGE catalogs of point sources available from the Herschel Science Center from both the Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS; 100 and 160 μm) and Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE; 250, 350, and 500 μm) cameras. These catalogs are matched to each other to create a Herschel band-merged catalog and then further matched to archival Spitzer IRAC and MIPS catalogs from the Spitzer Surveying the Agents of Galaxy Evolution (SAGE) and SAGE-SMC surveys to create single mid- to far-infrared (far-IR) point source catalogs that span the wavelength range from 3.6 to 500 μm. There are 35,322 unique sources in the LMC and 7503 in the SMC. To be bright in the FIR, a source must be very dusty, and so the sources in the HERITAGE catalogs represent the dustiest populations of sources. The brightest HERITAGE sources are dominated by young stellar objects (YSOs), and the dimmest by background galaxies. We identify the sources most likely to be background galaxies by first considering their morphology (distant galaxies are point-like at the resolution of Herschel) and then comparing the flux distribution to that of the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (ATLAS) survey of galaxies. We find a total of 9745 background galaxy candidates in the LMC HERITAGE images and 5111 in the SMC images, in agreement with the number predicted by extrapolating from the ATLAS flux distribution. The majority of the Magellanic Cloud-residing sources are either very young, embedded forming stars or dusty clumps of the interstellar medium. Using the presence of 24 μm emission as a tracer of star formation, we identify 3518 YSO candidates in the LMC and 663 in the SMC. There are far fewer far-IR bright YSOs in the SMC than the LMC due to both the SMC's smaller size and its lower dust content. The YSO candidate lists may be contaminated at low flux levels by background galaxies, and so we differentiate between sources with a high (“probable”) and moderate (“possible”) likelihood of being a YSO. There are 2493/425 probable YSO candidates in the LMC/SMC. Approximately 73% of the Herschel YSO candidates are newly identified in the LMC, and 35% in the SMC. We further identify a small population of dusty objects in the late stages of stellar evolution including extreme and post-asymptotic giant branch, planetary nebulae, and supernova remnants. These populations are identified by matching the HERITAGE catalogs to lists of previously identified objects in the literature. Approximately half of the LMC sources and one quarter of the SMC sources are too faint to obtain accurate ample FIR photometry and are unclassified.

• OSTI ID: 22342207
• Journal Information: Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online), Vol. 148, Issue 6; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1538-3881
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
APPROXIMATIONS
ASTROPHYSICS
ASYMPTOTIC SOLUTIONS
CATALOGS
DISTRIBUTION
DUSTS
EMISSION
FAR INFRARED RADIATION
IMAGES
MAGELLANIC CLOUDS
PERTURBED ANGULAR CORRELATION
PHOTOMETRY
PLANETARY NEBULAE
RESOLUTION
SPECTROMETERS
STAR EVOLUTION
STARS
SUPERNOVA REMNANTS
WAVELENGTHS