Image Details
Caption: Figure 13.
Resolving nebular ISM structures with LVM. Images show false-color optical (V-band) and narrowband ([O III], Hα, [S II]) imaging of the LMC revealing a wealth of nebular structures that are only apparent at the ∼10 pc resolution that LVM will achieve in the LMC/SMC and ∼parsec resolution in the MW. From left to right, the spatial resolution improves from 100 to 1.6 pc pixel−1. The inset region is shown in the corresponding bottom panels. Providing quantitative measurements of the qualitative change observed at ∼25 pc scales, when ionization fronts and networks of shocks appear and become resolved, will uniquely enable LVM to directly constrain the physics happening at this “energy injection scale” within the ISM. SDSS-V’s LVM program pushes beyond the ∼kiloparsec-scale optical IFU surveys (e.g., MaNGA; K. Bundy et al. 2015) and ∼100 pc scale local galaxy surveys (e.g., PHANGS; E. Emsellem et al. 2022), to uncover the smaller-scale physics regulating the star formation cycle.
© 2025. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.