The line-of-sight depth of populous clusters in the small magellanic cloud

We present an analysis of age, metal abundance, and positional data on popu lous clusters in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) with the ultimate aim of determining the line-of-sight (LOS) depth of the SMC by using these cluster s as proxies. Our data set contains 12 objects and is limited to clusters w ith the highest-quality data for which the ages and abundances are best kno wn and can be placed on an internally consistent scale. We have analyzed th e variation of the clusters' properties with position on the sky and with l ine-of-sight depth. Based on this analysis, we draw the following conclusio ns : (1) The observational data indicate that the eastern side of the SMC ( facing the Large Magellanic Cloud) contains younger and more metal-rich clu sters as compared with the western side. This is not a strong correlation b ecause our data set of clusters is necessarily limited, but it is suggestiv e and warrants further study. (2) Depending on how the reddening is compute d to our clusters, we find a mean distance modulus that ranges from to 18.8 2 +/- 0.05. (3) The intrinsic +/-1 sigma LOS depth of the SMC (m-M)(o) = 18 .71 +/- 0.06 populous clusters in our study is between similar to6 and simi lar to 12 kpc, depending primarily on whether we adopt the Burstein & Heile s reddenings or those from Schlegel et al. (4) Viewing the SMC as a triaxia l galaxy with declination, right ascension, and LOS depth as the three axes , we find axial ratios of approximately 1:2:4. Taken together, these conclu sions largely agree with those of previous investigators and underscore the utility of populous star clusters as probes of the structure of the Small Magellanic Cloud.