Clustering of Local Group distances: publication bias or correlated measurements? III. The Small Magellanic Cloud

Abstract

Aiming at providing a firm mean distance estimate to the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), and thus to place it within the internally consistent Local Group distance framework we recently established, we compiled the current-largest database of published distance estimates to the galaxy. Based on careful statistical analysis, we derive mean distance estimates to the SMC using eclipsing binary systems, variable stars, stellar population tracers, and star cluster properties. Their weighted mean leads to a final recommendation for the mean SMC distance of $(m-M{)}_0^{\mathrm{SMC}}=18.96\pm 0.02$ mag, where the uncertainty represents the formal error. Systematic effects related to lingering uncertainties in extinction corrections, our physical understanding of the stellar tracers used, and the SMC's complex geometry---including its significant line-of-sight depth, its irregular appearance which renders definition of the galaxy's center uncertain, as well as its high inclination and possibly warped disk---may contribute additional uncertainties possibly exceeding 0.15--0.20 mag.

arXiv comment17 pages, 2 figures (emulateapj format); AJ, in press

References in corpus (68)

• Maps of Dust IR Emission for Use in Estimation of Reddening and CMBR Foregrounds
• Final Results from the Hubble Space Telescope Key Project to Measure the Hubble Constant
• Evolutionary tracks and isochrones for low- and intermediate-mass stars: from 0.15 to 7 M_sun, and from Z=0.0004 to 0.03
• Hubble Space Telescope Fine Guidance Sensor Parallaxes of Galactic Cepheid Variable Stars: Period-Luminosity Relations
• Distance to M31 With the HST and Hipparcos Red Clump Stars
• Astrometry with Hubble Space Telescope: A Parallax of the Fundamental Distance Calibrator delta Cephei
• Ten eclipsing binaries in the Small Magellanic Cloud: fundamental parameters and SMC distance
• Population effects on the Red Giant Clump absolute magnitude, and distance determinations to nearby galaxies
• Galactocentric Distance With the OGLE and Hipparcos Red Clump Stars
• The Araucaria Project. The distance to the Small Magellanic Cloud from late-type eclipsing binaries
• Bump Cepheids in the Magellanic Clouds: Metallicities, the Distances to the LMC and SMC, and the Pulsation-Evolution Mass Discrepancy
• Age Determination of Six Intermediate-age SMC Star Clusters with HST/ACS
• K-Band Calibration of the Red Clump Luminosity
• The Effect of Metallicity on Cepheid-Based Distances
• Cepheid Parallaxes and the Hubble Constant
• Clustering of Local Group distances: publication bias or correlated measurements? I. The Large Magellanic Cloud
• A Database of Cepheid Distance Moduli and TRGB, GCLF, PNLF and SBF Data Useful for Distance Determinations
• Insights into the Cepheid distance scale
• WFPC2 Observations of Star Clusters in the Magellanic Clouds. II. The Oldest Star Clusters in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• The effect of metallicity on the Cepheid Period-Luminosity relation from a Baade-Wesselink analysis of Cepheids in the Galaxy and in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• WIYN Open Cluster Study. X. The K-Band Magnitude of the Red Clump as a Distance Indicator
• The Line-of-Sight Depth of Populous Clusters in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• The 3D structure of the Small Magellanic Cloud
• The "Tip" of the Red Giant Branch as a distance indicator: results from evolutionary models
• The VMC Survey - XIV. First results on the look-back time star-formation rate tomography of the Small Magellanic Cloud
• A Problem with the Clustering of Recent Measures of the Distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Fine structure of the red giant clump from HIPPARCOS data, and distance determinations based on its mean magnitude
• Age, Metallicity, and the Distance to the Magellanic Clouds From Red Clump Stars
• Submillimeter to centimeter excess emission from the Magellanic Clouds. II. On the nature of the excess
• Calibrating the Cepheid Period-Luminosity relation from the infrared surface brightness technique II. The effect of metallicity, and the distance to the LMC
• Old Stellar Populations of the Small Magellanic Cloud
• The red clump absolute magnitude based on revised Hipparcos parallaxes
• Three dimensional maps of the Magellanic Clouds using RR Lyrae Stars and Cepheids II. The Small Magellanic Cloud
• A Tidally-Stripped Stellar Component of the Magellanic Bridge
• On the distance of the Magellanic Clouds using Cepheid NIR and optical-NIR Period Wesenheit Relations
• Rebuilding the Cepheid Distance Scale I: A Global Analysis of Cepheid Mean Magnitudes
• Sharpening the Tip of the Red Giant Branch
• Comparison of Distances from RR Lyrae Stars, the Tip of the Red-Giant Branch and Classical Cepheids
• Cepheids in external galaxies. I. The maser-host galaxy NGC 4258 and the metallicity dependence of P-L and P-W relations
• K-Band Red Clump Distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud
• The distance to the Fornax Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy
• Baade-Wesselink distances to Galactic and Magellanic Cloud Cepheids and the effect of metallicity
• Mean age gradient and asymmetry in the star formation history of the Small Magellanic Cloud
• The Araucaria Project. The Distance to the Small Magellanic Cloud from Near-Infrared Photometry of RR Lyrae Variables
• Tip of the Red Giant Branch distances to galaxies with composite stellar populations
• A Comprehensive Catalogue of Variable Stars in the field of 47 Tucanae
• Ultra-Deep Hubble Space Telescope Imaging of the Small Magellanic Cloud: The Initial Mass Function of Stars with M <~ 1 Msun
• Clustering of Local Group distances: publication bias or correlated measurements? II. M31 and beyond
• Clump Distance to the Magellanic Clouds and Anomalous Colors in the Galactic Bulge
• Star formation history in the SMC: the case of NGC602
• Period-luminosity relations of type II Cepheids in the Magellanic Clouds
• Red variables in the OGLE-II database. II. Comparison of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds
• Zeroing the Stellar Isochrone Scale: The Red Giant Clump Luminosity at Intermediate Metallicity
• On the distance of Magellanic Clouds: first overtone Cepheids
• VLT multi-object spectroscopy of 33 eclipsing binaries in the Small Magellanic Cloud. New distance and depth of the SMC, and a record-breaking apsidal motion
• Period-luminosity relations of pulsating M giants in the solar neighbourhood and the Magellanic Clouds
• On the distance and reddening of the starburst galaxy IC10
• Disk of the Small Magellanic Cloud as traced by Cepheids
• Self-consistent physical parameters for five intermediate-age SMC stellar clusters from CMD modelling
• The araucaria project. An accurate distance to the late-type double-lined eclipsing binary ogle smc113.3 4007 in the small magellanic cloud
• Physical parameters of the Small Magellanic Cloud RR Lyrae stars and the distance scale
• K-Band Red Clump Distances to the LMC Clusters Hodge 4 and NGC 1651
• RR Lyrae variables in the Small Magellanic Cloud - II. The extended area: chemical and structural analysis
• The Star-forming Region NGC 346 in the Small Magellanic Cloud with Hubble Space Telescope ACS Observations. II. Photometric Study of the Intermediate-Age Star Cluster BS 90
• On the second overtone stability among SMC Cepheids
• The Araucaria Project. Population effects on the V and I band magnitudes of red clump stars
• On the Form of the Spitzer Leavitt Law and its Dependence on Metallicity
• BS196: an old star cluster far from the SMC main body

Cited by in corpus (90)

• Eight Ultra-faint Galaxy Candidates Discovered in Year Two of the Dark Energy Survey
• A distance determination to the Small Magellanic Cloud with an accuracy of better than 2 percent based on late-type eclipsing binary stars
• The VMC Survey. XXV. The 3D structure of the Small Magellanic Cloud from Classical Cepheids
• The VMC survey - XXXI. The spatially resolved star formation history of the main body of the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Old-Aged Stellar Population Distance Indicators
• The VMC survey - XXVI. Structure of the Small Magellanic Cloud from RR Lyrae stars
• Advances in Understanding High-Mass X-ray Binaries with INTEGRAL and Future Directions
• Revealing the tidal scars of the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Redshift-Independent Distances in the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database: Methodology, Content and Use of NED-D
• Standard Galactic Field RR Lyrae II: A Gaia DR2 calibration of the period-Wesenheit-metallicity relation
• Substructures and tidal distortions in the Magellanic stellar periphery
• Large Magellanic Cloud Near-Infrared Synoptic Survey. II. The Wesenheit relations and their application to the Distance scale
• Clustering of Local Group distances: publication bias or correlated measurements? IV. The Galactic Center
• Photometric metallicity and distance estimates for $\sim$ 136,000 RR Lyrae stars from Gaia DR3
• On the nature of ultra-faint dwarf galaxy candidates I: DES1, Eridanus III and Tucana V
• Discovery of Extended Main Sequence Turn-offs in Four Young Massive Clusters in the Magellanic Clouds
• The VMC Survey -- XXXIV. Morphology of Stellar Populations in the Magellanic Clouds
• Discovery of an Ultra-Faint Stellar System near the Magellanic Clouds with the DECam Local Volume Exploration (DELVE) Survey
• Estimating the dust production rate of carbon stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• The VMC Survey. XIX. Classical Cepheids in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Galactic Rotation from Cepheids with Gaia DR2 and Effects of Non-Axisymmetry
• Deep Chandra survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud. III. Formation efficiency of High-Mass X-ray binaries
• The VMC survey -- XLIV: Mapping metallicity trends in the Large Magellanic Cloud using near-infrared passbands
• Search for Gamma-ray Emission from Dark Matter Annihilation in the Small Magellanic Cloud with the Fermi Large Area Telescope
• The VISCACHA survey -- IV. The SMC West Halo in 8D
• The VMC survey - XXIII. Model fitting of light and radial velocity curves of Small Magellanic Cloud classical Cepheids
• Toward an internally consistent astronomical distance scale
• The VMC survey -- XLI. Stellar proper motions within the Small Magellanic Cloud
• The VMC Survey -- XL. Three-dimensional structure of the Small Magellanic Cloud as derived from red clump stars
• Stellar substructures in the periphery of the Magellanic Clouds with the VISTA Hemisphere Survey from the red clump and other tracers
• Reddening map and recent star formation in the Magellanic Clouds based on OGLE IV Cepheids
• The VISCACHA survey -- III. Star clusters counterpart of the Magellanic Bridge and Counter-Bridge in 8D
• The VMC survey -- XXXVIII. Proper motion of the Magellanic Bridge
• The VMC Survey. XXIX. Turbulence-Controlled Hierarchical Star Formation in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Gaia view of a stellar sub-structure in front of the Small Magellanic Cloud
• The VMC survey - XVII. The proper motion of the Small Magellanic Cloud and of the Milky Way globular cluster 47 Tucanae
• The chemical DNA of the Magellanic Clouds -- I. The chemical composition of 206 Small Magellanic Cloud red giant stars
• Astrophysical properties of star clusters in the Magellanic Clouds homogeneously estimated by $\text{ASteCA}$
• The VISCACHA survey -- II. Structure of star clusters in the Magellanic Clouds periphery
• The VMC survey -- XXXIX: Mapping metallicity trends in the Small Magellanic Cloud using near-infrared passbands
• Clustering of Local Group distances: publication bias or correlated measurements? V. Galactic rotation constants
• Multiwavelength Period-Luminosity and Period-Luminosity-Color relations at maximum-light for Mira variables in the Magellanic Clouds
• On the nature of a shell of young stars in the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Structured star formation in the Magellanic inter-Cloud region
• Non-Gaussian Error Distributions of LMC Distance Moduli Measurements
• Bridge over troubled gas: clusters and associations under the SMC and LMC tidal stresses
• Luminosities and infrared excess in Type II and anomalous Cepheids in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds
• A search for star clusters in the outskirts of the Large Magellanic Cloud: indication of clusters in the age gap
• Three-Dimensional Structure and Dust Extinction in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• A WISE view on extreme AGB stars
• XSHOOTER spectroscopy of the enigmatic planetary nebula Lin49 in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Gemini/GMOS photometry of intermediate-age star clusters in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• Presence of red giant population in the foreground stellar sub-structure of the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Neutron Stars and Black Holes in the Small Magellanic Cloud: The SMC NuSTAR Legacy Survey
• New quasars behind the Magellanic Clouds. Spectroscopic confirmation of near-infrared selected candidates
• The VMC Survey XXVII. Young Stellar Structures in the LMC${}^{\prime }$s Bar Star-Forming Complex
• The Araucaria Project. On the Tip of the Red Giant Branch distance determination to the Magellanic Clouds
• UVIT observations of the Small Magellanic Cloud: Point source catalogue
• Period-Luminosity Relations Derived From the OGLE-III Fundamental Mode Cepheids II: The Small Magellanic Cloud Cepheids
• The VMC Survey - XX. Identification of new Cepheids in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• The intrinsic reddening of the Magellanic Clouds as traced by background galaxies -- II. The Small Magellanic Cloud
• The Young Stellar Population of the metal-poor galaxy NGC 6822
• Populations of evolved massive binary stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud I: Predictions from detailed evolution models
• Tracking down the origin of superbubbles and supergiant shells in the Magellanic Clouds with Minkowski tensor analysis
• Period-Luminosity relations derived from the OGLE-III First-overtone mode Cepheids in the Magellanic Clouds
• Young and Intermediate-age Distance Indicators
• Near-infrared spectroscopy of embedded protostars in the massive metal-poor star-forming region NGC 346
• Non-Gaussian Error Distributions of Galactic Rotation Speed Measurements
• UVIT Study of the MAgellanic Clouds (U-SMAC) II. A Far-UV catalog of the Small Magellanic Cloud: Morphology and Kinematics of young stellar population
• The VMC Survey - XXXII. Pre-main sequence populations in the Large Magellanic Cloud
• The VISCACHA survey -- V. Rejuvenating three faint SMC clusters
• The VMC Survey - XXXIII. The tip of the red giant branch in the Magellanic Clouds
• Clustering of Local Group distances: publication bias or correlated measurements? VI. Extending to Virgo cluster distances
• The intrinsic reddening of the Magellanic Clouds as traced by background galaxies -- III. The Large Magellanic Cloud
• The spatial distributions of blue main-sequence stars in Magellanic Cloud star clusters
• Kinematics of stellar substructures in the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Towards Machine-assisted Meta-Studies: The Hubble Constant
• UVIT Study of the MAgellanic Clouds (U-SMAC) I. Recent star formation history and kinematics of the Shell region in the North-Eastern Small Magellanic Cloud
• Discrete star formation events in the central Bar of the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Photometric study of the SMCNOD using variable stars from the OGLE-IV survey
• Detection of a new sample of Galactic White Dwarfs in the direction of the Small Magellanic Cloud
• Discovery of NES, an extended tidal structure in the North-East of the Large Magellanic Cloud
• The YMCA (Yes, Magellanic Clouds Again) survey: probing the outer regions of the Magellanic system with VST
• Clustering of Local Group distances: publication bias or correlated measurements? VII. A distance framework out to 100 Mpc
• The VMC survey -- LIII. Data release #7. Complete survey data and data from additional programmes
• The VMC Survey -- LIV. Anomalous Cepheids in the Magellanic Clouds Period-Luminosity relations in the near-infrared bands
• A neutral hydrogen absorption study of cold gas in the outskirts of the Magellanic Clouds using the GASKAP-HI survey
• Strömgren photometric metallicity map of the Magellanic Cloud stars using Gaia DR3--XP spectra
• SMC-Last Mosaic Images
• The VMC survey -- XLVI. Stellar proper motions in the centre of the Large Magellanic Cloud