Deep VISTA observations of the Magellanic Clouds (VMCDeep)
Abstract
The central regions of galaxies challenge observers with a high density of stars, gas and dust. The LMC hosts a dense stellar bar whereas the SMC hosts a dense core, which have eluded even the most sensitive large-scale wide-field surveys of individual stars from the ground and from space. This work describes deep imaging observations obtained with VISTA of the inner regions of the Clouds. They were obtained to resolve stars fainter than the red clump, that due to crowding were missed in previous observations, and to quantify features associated with the star formation, kinematics and structure of the galaxies. These studies will allow us to establish how the dynamical interactions between the LMC and the SMC, and the interaction between the Clouds and the Milky Way have influenced the most gravitationally bound regions. Multiple near-infrared images were obtained in the J and Ks filters during excellent weather conditions. The data were reduced using the VDFS which provides single-filter and band-merged calibrated images and catalogues, with associated confidence maps, for individual observations and combined observations for deep tiles. Approximately one million sources, with only minor quality issues and about 40 epochs per filter, are detected in the central 1.77 sq. deg. They provide a more contiguous spatial area coverage than sources in the VMC survey, which covers the same regions by overlapping two VISTA tiles per galaxy. The catalogues, which are made available with this work, contain attributes to select unique good quality detections for which we provide examples of ongoing scientific applications. These data represent valuable complementary information to deep imaging observations at other wavelengths and provide additional epochs for proper motion and photometric variability studies extending the time baseline to 11 yr, as well as targets for spectroscopic observations.
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BibTeX
@misc{cioni2026deep,
title = {{Deep VISTA observations of the Magellanic Clouds (VMCDeep)}},
author = {M. -R. L. Cioni and A. O. Omkumar and N. J. G. Cross and F. Cusano and F. Dresbach and F. Ficara and F. Niederhofer and J. M. Oliveira and V. Ripepi and S. Vijayasree and G. Clementini and R. de Grijs and L. Girardi and M. A. T. Groenewegen and V. D. Ivanov and N. Kacharov and M. Marconi and A. Mazzi and G. Pastorelli and C. M. Pennock and M. Petr-Gotzens and J. Storm and S. Subramanian and J. Th. van Loon and R. P. Blake and M. J. Holliman and J. Irwin and M. J. Irwin and R. G. Mann and M. Read and E. Sutorius},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.28323},
eprint = {2608.28323},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.28323},
note = {CC0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Deep VISTA observations of the Magellanic Clouds (VMCDeep)
AU - M. -R. L. Cioni
AU - A. O. Omkumar
AU - N. J. G. Cross
AU - F. Cusano
AU - F. Dresbach
AU - F. Ficara
AU - F. Niederhofer
AU - J. M. Oliveira
AU - V. Ripepi
AU - S. Vijayasree
AU - G. Clementini
AU - R. de Grijs
AU - L. Girardi
AU - M. A. T. Groenewegen
AU - V. D. Ivanov
AU - N. Kacharov
AU - M. Marconi
AU - A. Mazzi
AU - G. Pastorelli
AU - C. M. Pennock
AU - M. Petr-Gotzens
AU - J. Storm
AU - S. Subramanian
AU - J. Th. van Loon
AU - R. P. Blake
AU - M. J. Holliman
AU - J. Irwin
AU - M. J. Irwin
AU - R. G. Mann
AU - M. Read
AU - E. Sutorius
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/28
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.28323
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.28323
AB - The central regions of galaxies challenge observers with a high density of stars, gas and dust. The LMC hosts a dense stellar bar whereas the SMC hosts a dense core, which have eluded even the most sensitive large-scale wide-field surveys of individual stars from the ground and from space. This work describes deep imaging observations obtained with VISTA of the inner regions of the Clouds. They were obtained to resolve stars fainter than the red clump, that due to crowding were missed in previous observations, and to quantify features associated with the star formation, kinematics and structure of the galaxies. These studies will allow us to establish how the dynamical interactions between the LMC and the SMC, and the interaction between the Clouds and the Milky Way have influenced the most gravitationally bound regions. Multiple near-infrared images were obtained in the J and Ks filters during excellent weather conditions. The data were reduced using the VDFS which provides single-filter and band-merged calibrated images and catalogues, with associated confidence maps, for individual observations and combined observations for deep tiles. Approximately one million sources, with only minor quality issues and about 40 epochs per filter, are detected in the central 1.77 sq. deg. They provide a more contiguous spatial area coverage than sources in the VMC survey, which covers the same regions by overlapping two VISTA tiles per galaxy. The catalogues, which are made available with this work, contain attributes to select unique good quality detections for which we provide examples of ongoing scientific applications. These data represent valuable complementary information to deep imaging observations at other wavelengths and provide additional epochs for proper motion and photometric variability studies extending the time baseline to 11 yr, as well as targets for spectroscopic observations.
ER -