A 4.8 and 8.6 GHz Survey of the Large Magellanic Cloud. I. The Images

Abstract

Detailed 4.8- and 8.6-GHz radio images of the entire Large Magellanic Cloud with half-power beamwidths of 33" at 4.8 GHz and 20" at 8.6 GHz have been obtained using the Australia Telescope Compact Array. A total of 7085 mosaic positions were used to cover an area of 6 degrees on a side. Full polarimetric observations were made. These images have sufficient spatial resolution (~8 and 5 pc, respectively) and sensitivity (3-sigma of 1 mJy/beam) to identify most of the individual SNRs and H II regions and also, in combination with available data from the Parkes 64-m telescope, the structure of the smooth emission in that galaxy. In addition, limited data using the sixth antenna at 4.5 to 6-km baselines are available to distinguish bright point sources (<3 and 2 arcsec, respectively) and to help estimate sizes of individual sources smaller than the resolution of the full survey. The resultant database will be valuable for statistical studies and comparisons with x-ray, optical and infrared surveys of the LMC with similar resolution.