The global gas and dust budget of the Small Magellanic Cloud

Abstract

In order to understand the evolution of the interstellar medium (ISM) of a galaxy, we have analysed the gas and dust budget of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). Using the Spitzer Space Telescope, we measured the integrated gas mass-loss rate across asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars and red supergiants (RSGs) in the SMC, and obtained a rate of 1.4x10^-3 Msun yr-1. This is much smaller than the estimated gas ejection rate from type II supernovae (SNe) (2-4x10^-2 Msun yr-1). The SMC underwent a an increase in starformation rate in the last 12 Myrs, and consequently the galaxy has a relatively high SN rate at present. Thus, SNe are more important gas sources than AGB stars in the SMC. The total gas input from stellar sources into the ISM is 2-4x10^-2 Msun yr-1. This is slightly smaller than the ISM gas consumed by starformation (~8x10^-2 Msun yr-1). Starformation in the SMC relies on a gas reservoir in the ISM, but eventually the starformation rate will decline in this galaxy, unless gas infalls into the ISM from an external source. The dust injection rate from AGB and RSG candidates is 1x10^-5 Msun yr-1. Dust injection from SNe is in the range of 0.2--11x10^-4 Msun yr-1, although the SN contribution is rather uncertain. Stellar sources could be important for ISM dust (3x10^5 Msun yr-1) in the SMC, if the dust lifetime is about 1.4 Gyrs. We found that the presence of poly-aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the ISM cannot be explained entirely by carbon-rich AGB stars. Carbon-rich AGB stars could inject only 7x10^-9 Msun yr-1 of PAHs at most, which could contribute up to 100 Msun of PAHs in the lifetime of a PAH. The estimated PAH mass of 1800 Msun in the SMC can not be explained. Additional PAH sources, or ISM reprocessing should be needed.

MNRAS accepted

References in corpus (12)

• The death of massive stars - I. Observational constraints on the progenitors of type II-P supernovae
• Evolution of interstellar dust and stardust in the solar neighbourhood
• Spitzer SAGE Infrared Photometry of Massive Stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• The Spitzer Survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud: FIR Emission and Cold Gas in the SMC
• Spitzer SAGE survey of the Large Magellanic Cloud II: Evolved Stars and Infrared Color Magnitude Diagrams
• A Cool Dust Factory in the Crab Nebula: A Herschel Study of the Filaments
• Spitzer SAGE-SMC Infrared Photometry of Massive Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• The cycle of interstellar dust in galaxies of different morphological types
• A Spitzer Space Telescope Study of SN 2003gd: Still No Direct Evidence that Core-Collapse Supernovae are Major Dust Factories
• The Mass-Loss Return From Evolved Stars to the LMC: Empirical Relations for Excess Emission at 8 and 24 μm
• Discovery of 5000 Active Galactic Nuclei behind the Magellanic Clouds
• The chemistry of extragalactic carbon stars

Cited by in corpus (39)

• Dust and Gas in the Magellanic Clouds from the HERITAGE Herschel Key Project. I. Dust Properties and Insights into the Origin of the Submm Excess Emission
• The wind speeds, dust content, and mass-loss rates of evolved AGB and RSG stars at varying metallicity
• Evolution of Thermally Pulsing Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars II. Dust production at varying metallicity
• Dust production 680-850 million years after the Big Bang
• The dust and gas content of the Crab Nebula
• The dust production rate of AGB stars in the Magellanic Clouds
• Dust grains from the heart of supernovae
• Spitzer Space Telescope spectra of post-AGB stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud ---polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons at low metallicities
• The evolved-star dust budget of the Small Magellanic Cloud: the critical role of a few key players
• AGB stars in the LMC: evolution of dust in circumstellar envelopes
• The SAGE-Spec Spitzer Legacy program: The life-cycle of dust and gas in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Point source classification III
• Dust Destruction Rates and Lifetimes in the Magellanic Clouds
• Evolution of Thermally Pulsing Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars III. Dust production at supersolar metallicities
• Spitzer Infrared Spectrographic point source classification in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• PHANGS-JWST First Results: Destruction of the PAH molecules in HII regions probed by JWST and MUSE
• Evolved Massive Stars at Low-metallicity V. Mass-Loss Rate of Red Supergiant Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• JINGLE -- IV. Dust, HI gas and metal scaling laws in the local Universe
• The mass-loss, expansion velocities and dust production rates of carbon stars in the Magellanic Clouds
• Estimating the dust production rate of carbon stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Maximally dusty star-forming galaxies: Supernova dust production and recycling in Local Group and high-redshift galaxies
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Gas Fuelling of Spiral Galaxies in the Local Universe I. - The Effect of the Group Environment on Star Formation in Spiral Galaxies
• ATOMIUM: ALMA tracing the origins of molecules in dust forming oxygen rich M-type stars: Motivation, sample, calibration, and initial results
• Evolution of dust and molecular hydrogen in the Magellanic System
• Evolved stars in the Local Group galaxies. I. AGB evolution and dust production in IC 1613
• Evolved Massive Stars at Low-metallicity II. Red Supergiant Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Origin of Dust around V1309 Sco
• A Spitzer/IRAC Characterization of Galactic AGB and RSG Stars
• Optical and infrared emission of H II complexes as a clue to the PAH life cycle
• The mass-loss rates of red supergiants at low metallicity: Detection of rotational CO emission from two red supergiants in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• A study of carbon-rich post-AGB stars in the Milky Way to understand the production of carbonaceous dust from evolved stars
• Dust in High-Redshift Galaxies: Reconciling UV Attenuation and IR Emission
• The contribution by luminous blue variable stars to the dust content of the Magellanic Clouds
• Can Dust Injected by SNe Explain the NIR-MIR Excess in Young Massive Stellar Clusters?
• Spitzer and Herschel studies of dust in supernova remnants in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Observational signatures of the dust size evolution in isolated galaxy simulations
• JWST observations of the Ring Nebula (NGC 6720) -- II. PAH emission
• The Identification of Extreme Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars and Red Supergiants in M33 by 24 μm Variability
• Temporal Changes in the Infrared Spectra of Magellanic Carbon Stars
• Dust Production around Carbon-Rich Stars: The Role of Metallicity