On the Distribution of Dust in the Large Magellanic Cloud

Details On the Distribution of Dust in the Large Magellanic Cloud On the Distribution of Dust in the Large Magellanic Cloud

1997-09-04

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9709043v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

44 pages, LaTeX, 17 Figures, accepted for publication in AJ

Scientific paper

10.1086/118615

We present a detailed map of the reddening in a 1.9 x 1.5 degree section of the Large Magellanic Cloud, constructed from UBVI photometry of 2069 O and B main sequence stars. We use two reddening-free photometric parameters to determine the line-of-sight reddening to these stars. We find =0.20 mag, with a non-Gaussian tail to high values. When the reddening is corrected for foreground Galactic extinction, we find =0.13 mag. The line-of- sight values are then interpolated onto a uniform grid with a local least- squares plane fitting routine to construct a reddening map of the region. We use the distribution of reddening values to constrain the line-of-sight geometry of stars and dust in the LMC, and to test and normalize a standard extinction correction for galaxy photometry. We attempt to distinguish between line-of-sight depth effects and structure in the dust distribution as possible causes for the observed differential reddening through this region. We conclude that our data are consistent with a vertical exponential distribution of stars and dust in the LMC, for which the dust scale height is twice that of the OB stars; that the dust distribution must be non- uniform (clumpy) to account for the full distribution of measured reddening values; and that the B-band optical depth through the observed region of the LMC is 0.69 < tau < 0.82.

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