Observations of the Large Magellanic Cloud with Fermi

Understand

Context: The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is to date the only normal external galaxy that has been detected in high-energy gamma rays.

• High-energy gamma rays trace particle acceleration processes and gamma-ray observations allow the nature and sites of acceleration to be studied.
• Aims: We characterise the distribution and sources of cosmic rays in the LMC from analysis of gamma-ray observations.
• Methods: We analyse 11 months of continuous sky-survey observations obtained with the Large Area Telescope aboard the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope and compare it to tracers of the interstellar medium and models of the gamma-ray sources in the LMC.