The Astrophysical Journal Letters (Jan 2024)
GOALS-JWST: Constraining the Emergence Timescale for Massive Star Clusters in NGC 3256
- Sean T. Linden,
- Thomas Lai,
- Aaron S. Evans,
- Lee Armus,
- Kirsten L. Larson,
- Jeffrey A. Rich,
- Vivian U,
- George C. Privon,
- Hanae Inami,
- Yiqing Song,
- Marina Bianchin,
- Thomas Bohn,
- Victorine A. Buiten,
- Maria Sanchez-García,
- Justin Kader,
- Laura Lenkić,
- Anne M. Medling,
- Torsten Böker,
- Tanio Díaz-Santos,
- Vassilis Charmandaris,
- Loreto Barcos-Muñoz,
- Paul van der Werf,
- Sabrina Stierwalt,
- Susanne Aalto,
- Philip Appleton,
- Christopher C. Hayward,
- Justin H. Howell,
- Matthew A. Malkan,
- Joseph M. Mazzarella,
- Eric J. Murphy,
- Jason Surace
Affiliations
- Sean T. Linden
- ORCiD
- Steward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA ; [email protected]
- Thomas Lai
- ORCiD
- IPAC, California Institute of Technology , 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- Aaron S. Evans
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia , 530 McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA; National Radio Astronomy Observatory , 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA
- Lee Armus
- ORCiD
- IPAC, California Institute of Technology , 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- Kirsten L. Larson
- ORCiD
- AURA for the European Space Agency (ESA), Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Jeffrey A. Rich
- ORCiD
- The Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science , 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101, USA
- Vivian U
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, 4129 Frederick Reines Hall, University of California , Irvine, CA 92697, USA
- George C. Privon
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia , 530 McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA; National Radio Astronomy Observatory , 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA
- Hanae Inami
- ORCiD
- Hiroshima Astrophysical Science Center, Hiroshima University , 1-3-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima 739-8526, Japan
- Yiqing Song
- ORCiD
- European Southern Observatory , Alonso de Córdova, 3107, Vitacura, Santiago, 763-0355, Chile; Joint ALMA Observatory , Alonso de Córdova, 3107, Vitacura, Santiago, 763-0355, Chile
- Marina Bianchin
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, 4129 Frederick Reines Hall, University of California , Irvine, CA 92697, USA
- Thomas Bohn
- ORCiD
- Hiroshima Astrophysical Science Center, Hiroshima University , 1-3-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima 739-8526, Japan
- Victorine A. Buiten
- ORCiD
- Leiden Observatory, Leiden University , PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
- Maria Sanchez-García
- ORCiD
- Institute of Astrophysics, Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH) , Heraklion, 70013, Greece
- Justin Kader
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, 4129 Frederick Reines Hall, University of California , Irvine, CA 92697, USA
- Laura Lenkić
- ORCiD
- Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, NASA Ames Research Center , Mail Stop 204-14, Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA; Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology , 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, 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
- Torsten Böker
- ORCiD
- European Space Agency, Space Telescope Science Institute , Baltimore, MD, 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
- 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
- Loreto Barcos-Muñoz
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia , 530 McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA; National Radio Astronomy Observatory , 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA
- Paul van der Werf
- ORCiD
- Leiden Observatory, Leiden University , PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
- Sabrina Stierwalt
- ORCiD
- Occidental College , Physics Department, 1600 Campus Road, Los Angeles, CA 90042, USA
- Susanne Aalto
- ORCiD
- Department of Space, Earth and Environment, Chalmers University of Technology , 412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden
- Philip Appleton
- ORCiD
- IPAC, California Institute of Technology , 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- Christopher C. Hayward
- ORCiD
- Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute , 162 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA
- Justin H. Howell
- ORCiD
- IPAC, California Institute of Technology , 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- Matthew A. Malkan
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics & Astronomy, UCLA , Los Angeles, CA 90095-1547, USA
- Joseph M. Mazzarella
- ORCiD
- IPAC, California Institute of Technology , 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- Eric J. Murphy
- ORCiD
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory , 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA
- Jason Surace
- ORCiD
- IPAC, California Institute of Technology , 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad7eae
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 974,
no. 2
p. L27
Abstract
We present the results of a James Webb Space Telescope NIRCam and NIRSpec investigation into the young massive star cluster (YMC) population of NGC 3256, the most cluster-rich luminous infrared galaxy in the Great Observatories All Sky LIRG Survey. We detect 3061 compact YMC candidates with a signal-to-noise ratio ≥3 at F150W, F200W, and F335M. Based on yggdrasil stellar population models, we identify 116/3061 sources with F150W – F200W > 0.47 and F200W – F355M > −1.37 colors, suggesting that they are young ( t ≤ 5 Myr), dusty ( A _V = 5−15), and massive ( M _⊙ > 10 ^5 ). This increases the sample of dust-enshrouded YMCs detected in this system by an order of magnitude relative to previous Hubble Space Telescope studies. With NIRSpec integral field unit pointings centered on the northern and southern nucleus, we extract the Pa α and 3.3 μ m polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) equivalent widths for eight bright and isolated YMCs. Variations in both the F200W – F335M color and 3.3 μ m PAH emission with the Pa α line strength suggest a rapid dust clearing ( 0) correspond to sources with E ( B − V ) > 3, which are typically missed in UV-optical studies. This underscores the importance of deep near-infrared imaging for finding and characterizing these very young and dust-embedded sources.
Keywords
- Young star clusters
- Stellar feedback
- Luminous infrared galaxies
- Star forming regions
- Starburst galaxies
