Remeis astronomers have provided the deepest view of diffuse X-ray emission from hot plasma in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
When stars explode in violent supernovae, they release an enormous amount of energy, momentum, and material into their surroundings, which leads to lasting imprints on the “ecosystem” of their galaxies. An important signature of this process is a very hot and thin component of the galactic interstellar medium, whose X-ray emission encodes characteristic temperature, density, and composition of this hot gas. Our neighboring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), is sufficiently nearby and active, for a pronounced diffuse ISM component to be visible in X-rays.
Using X-ray data from the eROSITA all-sky survey, combined with radio, infrared, and optical multiwavelength data, researchers from the Remeis multiwavelength group of Prof. Manami Sasaki have now studied this hot phase of the interstellar medium of the LMC in unprecedented detail. The team led by Dr. Martin Mayer showed that hot tenuous gas permeates almost the entire galaxy, except for those regions where gold gas filaments are observed. With a typical temperature around three million degrees, the hot gas phase shows a total energy content corresponding to 5000 exploding stars, and reveals regions where supernovae have enriched their surroundings with elements such as oxygen, neon, or magnesium.
In a future paper, the team will quantitatively model the connection between energy and composition of the hot gas and the stellar populations in the galaxy.
Hot gas in the LMC. The left image shws the eROSITA X-ray image of our neighbor galaxy in three bands; In the right image, compact sources have been masked to highlight diffuse emission from hot gas.
Read more: Studying the multiphase interstellar medium in the Large Magellanic Cloud with SRG/eROSITA: I. Analysis of diffuse X-ray emission
Mayer, M., Sasaki, M., et al., 2025, A&A, 700, A137
Martin Mayer
mgf.mayer@fau.de
+49 9131 85-81043
Manami Sasaki
Manami.Sasaki@fau.de
+49 9131 85-81019