ATCA survey of H2O masers in the large magellanic cloud

Abstract

We have analysed archival data taken with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) during 2001-2003 and detected nine new interstellar and circumstellar H2O masers in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). This takes the total number of star formation H2O masers in the LMC to 23, spread over 14 different star-forming regions and 3 evolved stars. Three H2O maser sources (N105a/MC23, N113/MC24, N157a/MC74) have been detected in all the previous observations that targeted these sites, although all show significant variability on time-scales of decades. The total number of independent H2O maser sources now known in the LMC means that through very long baseline interferometry astrometric measurements it will be possible to construct a more precise model of the galactic rotation of the LMC and its orbital motion around the Milky Way Galaxy. © 2013 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.