A Revised and Extended Catalog of Magellanic System Clusters, Associations, and Emission Nebulae. II. The Large Magellanic Cloud

Abstract

A survey of extended objects in the Large Magellanic Cloud was carried out on the ESO/SERC R and J Sky Survey Atlases, checking entries in previous catalogs and searching for new objects. The census provided 6659 objects including star clusters, emission-free associations, and objects related to emission nebulae. Each of these classes contains three subclasses with intermediate properties, which are used to infer total populations. The survey includes cross identifications among catalogs, and we present 3246 new objects. We provide accurate positions, classification, and homogeneous measurements of sizes and position angles, as well as information on cluster pairs and hierarchical relation for superimposed objects. This unification and enlargement of catalogs is important for future searches of fainter and smaller new objects. We discuss the angular and size distributions of the objects of the different classes. The angular distributions show two off-centered systems with different inclinations, suggesting that the LMC disk is warped. The present catalog together with its previous counterpart for the SMC and the inter-Cloud region provide a total population of 7847 extended objects in the Magellanic System. The angular distribution of the ensemble reveals important clues on the interaction between the LMC and SMC.