The Astrophysical Journal Letters (Jan 2022)
GOALS-JWST: Tracing AGN Feedback on the Star-forming Interstellar Medium in NGC 7469
- Thomas S.-Y. Lai,
- Lee Armus,
- Vivian U,
- Tanio Díaz-Santos,
- Kirsten L. Larson,
- Aaron Evans,
- Matthew A. Malkan,
- Philip Appleton,
- Jeff Rich,
- Francisco Müller-Sánchez,
- Hanae Inami,
- Thomas Bohn,
- Jed McKinney,
- Luke Finnerty,
- David R. Law,
- Sean T. Linden,
- Anne M. Medling,
- George C. Privon,
- Yiqing Song,
- Sabrina Stierwalt,
- Paul P. van der Werf,
- Loreto Barcos-Muñoz,
- J. D. T. Smith,
- Aditya Togi,
- Susanne Aalto,
- Torsten Böker,
- Vassilis Charmandaris,
- Justin Howell,
- Kazushi Iwasawa,
- Francisca Kemper,
- Joseph M. Mazzarella,
- Eric J. Murphy,
- Michael J. I. Brown,
- Christopher C. Hayward,
- Jason Marshall,
- David Sanders,
- Jason Surace
Affiliations
- Thomas S.-Y. Lai
- ORCiD
- IPAC, California Institute of Technology , 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA ; [email protected]
- Lee Armus
- ORCiD
- IPAC, California Institute of Technology , 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA ; [email protected]
- Vivian U
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, 4129 Frederick Reines Hall, University of California , Irvine, CA 92697, USA
- Tanio Díaz-Santos
- ORCiD
- Institute of Astrophysics , Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH), Heraklion, 70013, Greece; School of Sciences, European University Cyprus , Diogenes street, Engomi, 1516 Nicosia, Cyprus
- Kirsten L. Larson
- ORCiD
- AURA for the European Space Agency (ESA), Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Aaron Evans
- ORCiD
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory , 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA, 22903, USA; Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia , 530 McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA
- Matthew A. Malkan
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics & Astronomy, 430 Portola Plaza, University of California , Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- Philip Appleton
- ORCiD
- IPAC, California Institute of Technology , 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA ; [email protected]
- Jeff Rich
- ORCiD
- The Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science , 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101, USA
- Francisco Müller-Sánchez
- 4 Department of Physics and Materials Science, University of Memphis , 3720 Alumni Avenue, Memphis, TN 38152, USA
- Hanae Inami
- ORCiD
- Hiroshima Astrophysical Science Center, Hiroshima University , 1-3-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima 739-8526, Japan
- Thomas Bohn
- ORCiD
- Hiroshima Astrophysical Science Center, Hiroshima University , 1-3-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima 739-8526, Japan
- Jed McKinney
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts , Amherst, MA 01003, USA
- Luke Finnerty
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics & Astronomy, 430 Portola Plaza, University of California , Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- David R. Law
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Sean T. Linden
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts at Amherst , Amherst, MA 01003, USA
- Anne M. Medling
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics & Astronomy and Ritter Astrophysical Research Center, University of Toledo , Toledo, OH 43606, USA; ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) , Australia
- George C. Privon
- ORCiD
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory , 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA, 22903, USA; Department of Astronomy, University of Florida , P.O. Box 112055, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
- Yiqing Song
- ORCiD
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory , 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA, 22903, USA; Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia , 530 McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA
- Sabrina Stierwalt
- ORCiD
- Physics Department, 1600 Campus Road, Occidental College , Los Angeles, CA 90041, USA
- Paul P. van der Werf
- ORCiD
- Leiden Observatory, Leiden University , PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
- Loreto Barcos-Muñoz
- ORCiD
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory , 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA, 22903, USA; Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia , 530 McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA
- J. D. T. Smith
- ORCiD
- Ritter Astrophysical Research Center, University of Toledo , Toledo, OH 43606, USA
- Aditya Togi
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Texas State University , 601 University Drive, San Marcos, TX 78666, USA
- Susanne Aalto
- ORCiD
- Department of Space, Earth and Environment, Chalmers University of Technology , SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden
- Torsten Böker
- ORCiD
- European Space Agency, Space Telescope Science Institute , Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Vassilis Charmandaris
- ORCiD
- Institute of Astrophysics , Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH), Heraklion, 70013, Greece; School of Sciences, European University Cyprus , Diogenes street, Engomi, 1516 Nicosia, Cyprus; Department of Physics, University of Crete , Heraklion, 71003, Greece
- Justin Howell
- ORCiD
- IPAC, California Institute of Technology , 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA ; [email protected]
- Kazushi Iwasawa
- ORCiD
- Institut de Ciències del Cosmos (ICCUB), Universitat de Barcelona (IEEC-UB) , Martí i Franquès, 1, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain; ICREA, Pg. Lluís Companys 23, E-08010 Barcelona, Spain
- Francisca Kemper
- ORCiD
- Institut de Ciencies de l’Espai (ICE, CSIC) , Can Magrans, s/n, E-08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain; ICREA, Pg. Lluís Companys 23, Barcelona, Spain; Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC) , E-08034 Barcelona, Spain
- Joseph M. Mazzarella
- ORCiD
- IPAC, California Institute of Technology , 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA ; [email protected]
- Eric J. Murphy
- ORCiD
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory , 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA, 22903, USA
- Michael J. I. Brown
- ORCiD
- School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash University , Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia
- Christopher C. Hayward
- ORCiD
- Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute , 162 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA
- Jason Marshall
- ORCiD
- 4Glendale Community College , 1500 N. Verdugo Road, Glendale, CA 91208, USA
- David Sanders
- ORCiD
- Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii , 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
- Jason Surace
- ORCiD
- IPAC, California Institute of Technology , 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA ; [email protected]
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ac9ebf
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 941,
no. 2
p. L36
Abstract
We present James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) integral-field spectroscopy of the nearby merging, luminous infrared galaxy, NGC 7469. This galaxy hosts a Seyfert type-1.5 nucleus, a highly ionized outflow, and a bright, circumnuclear star-forming ring, making it an ideal target to study active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback in the local universe. We take advantage of the high spatial/spectral resolution of JWST/MIRI to isolate the star-forming regions surrounding the central active nucleus and study the properties of the dust and warm molecular gas on ∼100 pc scales. The starburst ring exhibits prominent polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission, with grain sizes and ionization states varying by only ∼30%, and a total star formation rate of 10–30 M _⊙ yr ^−1 derived from fine structure and recombination emission lines. Using pure rotational lines of H _2 we detect 1.2 × 10 ^7 M _⊙ of warm molecular gas at a temperature higher than 200 K in the ring. All PAH bands get significantly weaker toward the central source, where larger and possibly more ionized grains dominate the emission, likely the result of the ionizing radiation and/or the fast wind emerging from the AGN. The small grains and warm molecular gas in the bright regions of the ring however display properties consistent with normal star-forming regions. These observations highlight the power of JWST to probe the inner regions of dusty, rapidly evolving galaxies for signatures of feedback and inform models that seek to explain the coevolution of supermassive black holes and their hosts.
Keywords
- Seyfert galaxies
- Active galactic nuclei
- Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
- Starburst galaxies
- Luminous infrared galaxies
