The Astrophysical Journal (Jan 2024)
Young Stellar Objects in NGC 346: A JWST NIRCam/MIRI Imaging Survey
- Nolan Habel,
- Conor Nally,
- Laura Lenkić,
- Margaret Meixner,
- Guido De Marchi,
- Patrick J. Kavanagh,
- Katja Fahrion,
- Omnarayani Nayak,
- Alec S. Hirschauer,
- Olivia C. Jones,
- Katia Biazzo,
- Bernhard R. Brandl,
- J. Jaspers,
- Klaus M. Pontoppidan,
- Massimo Robberto,
- C. Rogers,
- E. Sabbi,
- B. A. Sargent,
- David R. Soderblom,
- Peter Zeidler
Affiliations
- Nolan Habel
- ORCiD
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA ; [email protected]
- Conor Nally
- ORCiD
- Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh , Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
- Laura Lenkić
- ORCiD
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA ; [email protected]; Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, NASA Ames Research Center , Mail Stop 204-14, Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA
- Margaret Meixner
- ORCiD
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA ; [email protected]; Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, NASA Ames Research Center , Mail Stop 204-14, Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA
- Guido De Marchi
- ORCiD
- European Space Research and Technology Centre , Keplerlaan 1, 2200 AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands
- Patrick J. Kavanagh
- ORCiD
- Department of Experimental Physics, Maynooth University , Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland
- Katja Fahrion
- ORCiD
- European Space Research and Technology Centre , Keplerlaan 1, 2200 AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands
- Omnarayani Nayak
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center , 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD, USA
- Alec S. Hirschauer
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Olivia C. Jones
- ORCiD
- UK Astronomy Technology Centre , Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
- Katia Biazzo
- ORCiD
- INAF , Astronomical Observatory of Rome, via Frascati 33, Monteporzio Catone I-00078, Italy
- Bernhard R. Brandl
- ORCiD
- Leiden Observatory, Leiden University , P.O. Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
- J. Jaspers
- ORCiD
- Department of Experimental Physics, Maynooth University , Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland; Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies , School of Cosmic Physics, Astronomy & Astrophysics Section, 31 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2, Ireland
- Klaus M. Pontoppidan
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Massimo Robberto
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA; Department of Physics & Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University , 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- C. Rogers
- ORCiD
- Leiden Observatory, Leiden University , P.O. Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
- E. Sabbi
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- B. A. Sargent
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA; Department of Physics & Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University , 3400 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- David R. Soderblom
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Peter Zeidler
- ORCiD
- AURA for the European Space Agency, Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad5343
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 971,
no. 1
p. 108
Abstract
We present a JWST imaging survey with NIRCam and MIRI of NGC 346, the brightest star-forming region in the Small Magellanic Cloud. By combining aperture and point-spread function photometry of 11 wavelength bands across these two instruments, we have detected more than 200,000 unique sources. Using a near-infrared color analysis, we observe various evolved and young populations, including 196 young stellar objects (YSOs) and pre-main-sequence stars suitable for forthcoming spectroscopic studies. We expand upon this work, creating mid-infrared color–magnitude diagrams and determining color cuts to identify 833 reddened sources which are YSO candidates. We observe that these candidate sources are spatially associated with regions of dusty, filamentary nebulosity. Furthermore, we fit model YSO spectral energy distributions to a selection of sources with detections across all of our MIRI bands. We classify with a high degree of confidence 23 YSOs in this sample and estimate their radii, bolometric temperatures, luminosities, and masses. We detect YSOs approaching 1 M _⊙ , the lowest-mass extragalactic YSOs confirmed to date.
Keywords
- Small Magellanic Cloud
- Protostars
- Metallicity
- Pre-main sequence
- Two-color diagrams
- Hertzsprung Russell diagram
