Radio Images of the Large Magellanic Cloud

A team of researchers, including Illinois professor John Dickel, have used the Australia Telescope Compact Array to construct radio continuum images of the Large Magellanic Cloud at wavelengths of 6 and 3.5 cm with resolutions of 35 and 20 arcsec, respectively (9 and 5 pc at the 50 kpc distance of the LMC). A total of 6336 mosaic positions were used to cover an area of 6 degrees on a side. To include the broad scale emission which cannot be measured by the interferometer, data from the Parkes 64-meter telescope are also included. In addition, limited data using the sixth antenna at ~6-km baselines are available to distinguish bright point sources (< 2 and 1.2 arcsec, respectively). The merged 6-cm wavelength image is shown below. All of the well known supernova remnants and H II regions are clearly seen and some new sources are found. Comparisons with various optical and x-ray catalogs are under way.

A poster detailing this project was presented at the 202^nd AAS Meeting held in Nashville, Tennessee in May 2003.