STEP: The VST survey of the SMC and the Magellanic Bridge. I. Overview and first results

Abstract

STEP (the SMC in Time: Evolution of a Prototype interacting late-type dwarf galaxy) is a Guaranteed Time Observation survey being performed at the VST (the ESO VLT Survey Telescope). STEP will image an area of 74 deg${}^2$ covering the main body of the Small Magellanic Cloud (32 deg${}^2$), the Bridge that connects it to the Large Magellanic Cloud (30 deg${}^2$) and a small part of the Magellanic Stream (2 deg${}^2$). Our $g,r,i,H_{\alpha }$ photometry is able to resolve individual stars down to magnitudes well below the main-sequence turnoff of the oldest populations. In this first paper we describe the observing strategy, the photometric techniques, and the upcoming data products of the survey. We also present preliminary results for the first two fields for which data acquisition is completed, including some detailed analysis of the two stellar clusters IC\,1624 and NGC\,419.

28 pages, 22 figures (several in low resolution to reduce size). Accepted for publication on MNRAS

References in corpus (20)

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• OGLE-ing the Magellanic System: Stellar populations in the Magellanic Bridge
• The VMC survey - XV. The Small Magellanic Cloud--Bridge connection history as traced by their star cluster populations
• The VMC Survey -- XLVIII. Classical Cepheids unveil the 3D geometry of the LMC
• The Second Data Release of the Survey of the MAgellanic Stellar History (SMASH)
• Ca II Triplet Spectroscopy of Small Magellanic Cloud Red Giants. V. Abundances and Velocities for 12 Massive Clusters
• STEP Survey II: Structural Analysis of 170 star clusters in the SMC
• A search for star clusters in the outskirts of the Large Magellanic Cloud: indication of clusters in the age gap
• Binarity at LOw Metallicity (BLOeM): Enhanced multiplicity of early B-type dwarfs and giants at $Z=0.2{\mathrm{Z}}_{\odot }$
• OGLE-SMC-LPV-00861 (LIN 9): the first proven Z And outburst in a Magellanic symbiotic star
• A genuine Large Magellanic Cloud age gap star cluster
• Short period variability in the globular cluster NGC 419 and the SMC field
• Revisiting newly Large Magellanic Cloud age gap star clusters
• KMHK 1762: Another star cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud age gap
• The YMCA (Yes, Magellanic Clouds Again) survey: probing the outer regions of the Magellanic system with VST
• A Forming Wide Polar Ring Galaxy at z~0.05 in the VST Deep Field of the Fornax Cluster
• AstroSat observations of interacting galaxies NGC 7469 and IC 5283
• The chemical DNA of the Magellanic Clouds VI. Origin and evolution of neutron-capture elements in the SMC