VLT-MAD observations of the core of 30 Doradus

Understand

We present H- and Ks-band imaging of three fields at the centre of 30 Doradus in the Large Magellanic Cloud, obtained as part of the Science Demonstration programme with the Multi-conjugate Adaptive optics Demonstrator (MAD) at the Very Large Telescope.

• Strehl ratios of 15-30% were achieved in the Ks-band, yielding near-infrared images of this dense and complex region at unprecedented angular resolution at these wavelengths.
• The MAD data are used to construct a near-infrared luminosity profile for R136, the cluster at the core of 30 Dor.
• Using cluster profiles of the form used by Elson et al., we find the surface brightness can be fit by a relatively shallow power-law function (gamma~1.5-1.7) over the full extent of the MAD data, which extends to a radius of ~40" (~10pc).