The MeerKAT 1.3 GHz Survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud

TL;DR

This paper presents a detailed radio survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud using MeerKAT, revealing new supernova remnants, planetary nebulae, and background radio galaxies, significantly enhancing the understanding of the region's radio sources.

Contribution

First comprehensive 1.3 GHz MeerKAT survey of the SMC, discovering new supernova remnants, planetary nebulae, and background radio galaxies, with high sensitivity and resolution.

Findings

Detected a new supernova remnant with an X-ray magnetar at its center.

Identified 10 new SNR candidates with lower surface brightness and larger sizes.

Detected 38 planetary nebulae, including 19 new radio detections.

Abstract

We present new radio continuum images and a source catalogue from the MeerKAT survey in the direction of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). The observations, at a central frequency of 1.3 GHz across a bandwidth of 0.8 GHz, encompass a field of view ~7 x 7 degrees and result in images with resolution of 8 arcsec. The median broad-band Stokes I image Root Mean Squared noise value is ~11 microJy/beam. The catalogue produced from these images contains 108,330 point sources and 517 compact extended sources. We also describe a UHF (544-1088 MHz) single pointing observation. We report the detection of a new confirmed Supernova Remnant (SNR) (MCSNR J0100-7211) with an X-ray magnetar at its centre and 10 new SNR candidates. This is in addition to the detection of 21 previously confirmed SNRs and two previously noted SNR candidates. Our new SNR candidates have typical surface brightness an order of magnitude below those previously known, and on the whole they are larger. The high sensitivity of the MeerKAT survey also enabled us to detect the bright end of the SMC Planetary Nebulae (PNe) sample - point-like radio emission is associated with 38 of 102 optically known PNe, of which 19 are new detections. Lastly, we present the detection of three foreground radio stars amidst 11 circularly polarised sources, and a few examples of morphologically interesting background radio galaxies from which the radio ring galaxy ESO 029-G034 may represent a new type of radio object.