The Astrophysical Journal Letters (Jan 2022)
GOALS-JWST: Hidden Star Formation and Extended PAH Emission in the Luminous Infrared Galaxy VV 114
- A. S. Evans,
- D. T. Frayer,
- Vassilis Charmandaris,
- Lee Armus,
- Hanae Inami,
- Jason Surace,
- Sean Linden,
- B. T. Soifer,
- Tanio Diaz-Santos,
- Kirsten L. Larson,
- Jeffrey A. Rich,
- Yiqing Song,
- Loreto Barcos-Munoz,
- Joseph M. Mazzarella,
- George C. Privon,
- Vivian U,
- Anne M. Medling,
- Torsten Böker,
- Susanne Aalto,
- Kazushi Iwasawa,
- Justin H. Howell,
- Paul van der Werf,
- Philip Appleton,
- Thomas Bohn,
- Michael J. I. Brown,
- Christopher C. Hayward,
- Shunshi Hoshioka,
- Francisca Kemper,
- Thomas Lai,
- David Law,
- Matthew A. Malkan,
- Jason Marshall,
- Eric J. Murphy,
- David Sanders,
- Sabrina Stierwalt
Affiliations
- A. S. Evans
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia , 530 McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA ; [email protected]; National Radio Astronomy Observatory , 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA
- D. T. Frayer
- ORCiD
- Green Bank Observatory , 155 Observatory Road, Green Bank, WV 24944, USA
- Vassilis Charmandaris
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Crete , Heraklion, 71003, Greece; 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
- Lee Armus
- ORCiD
- IPAC, California Institute of Technology , 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- Hanae Inami
- ORCiD
- Hiroshima Astrophysical Science Center, Hiroshima University , 1-3-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima 739-8526, Japan
- Jason Surace
- ORCiD
- IPAC, California Institute of Technology , 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- Sean Linden
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts at Amherst , Amherst, MA 01003, USA
- B. T. Soifer
- ORCiD
- Spitzer Science Center, California Institute of Technology , 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125 USA
- Tanio Diaz-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
- Jeffrey A. Rich
- ORCiD
- The Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science , 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101, USA
- Yiqing Song
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia , 530 McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA ; [email protected]; National Radio Astronomy Observatory , 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA
- Loreto Barcos-Munoz
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia , 530 McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA ; [email protected]; National Radio Astronomy Observatory , 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA
- Joseph M. Mazzarella
- ORCiD
- IPAC, California Institute of Technology , 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- 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
- Vivian U
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, 4129 Frederick Reines Hall, University of California , Irvine, CA 92697, 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
- Susanne Aalto
- ORCiD
- Department of Space, Earth and Environment, Chalmers University of Technology , SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden
- 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
- Justin H. Howell
- ORCiD
- IPAC, California Institute of Technology , 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- Paul van der Werf
- ORCiD
- Leiden Observatory, Leiden University , NL-2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
- Philip Appleton
- ORCiD
- IPAC, California Institute of Technology , 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- Thomas Bohn
- ORCiD
- Hiroshima Astrophysical Science Center, Hiroshima University , 1-3-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima 739-8526, Japan
- Michael J. I. Brown
- ORCiD
- School of Physics & 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
- Shunshi Hoshioka
- Hiroshima Astrophysical Science Center, Hiroshima University , 1-3-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima 739-8526, Japan
- Francisca Kemper
- ORCiD
- ICREA , Pg. Lluís Companys 23, E-08010 Barcelona, Spain
- Thomas Lai
- ORCiD
- IPAC, California Institute of Technology , 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
- David Law
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Matthew A. Malkan
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics & Astronomy , UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1547, USA
- Jason Marshall
- ORCiD
- Glendale Community College , 1500 N. Verdugo Rd., Glendale, CA 91208, USA
- Eric J. Murphy
- ORCiD
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory , 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA
- David Sanders
- ORCiD
- Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii , 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
- Sabrina Stierwalt
- ORCiD
- Occidental College , Physics Department, 1600 Campus Road, Los Angeles, CA 90042, USA
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ac9971
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 940,
no. 1
p. L8
Abstract
James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) images of the luminous infrared (IR) galaxy VV 114 are presented. This redshift ∼0.020 merger has a western component (VV 114W) rich in optical star clusters and an eastern component (VV 114E) hosting a luminous mid-IR nucleus hidden at UV and optical wavelengths by dust lanes. With MIRI, the VV 114E nucleus resolves primarily into bright NE and SW cores separated by 630 pc. This nucleus comprises 45% of the 15 μ m light of VV 114, with the NE and SW cores having IR luminosities, L _IR (8 − 1000 μ m) ∼ 8 ± 0.8 × 10 ^10 L _⊙ and ∼ 5 ± 0.5 × 10 ^10 L _⊙ , respectively, and IR densities, Σ _IR ≳ 2 ± 0.2 × 10 ^13 L _⊙ kpc ^−2 and ≳ 7 ± 0.7 × 10 ^12 L _⊙ kpc ^−2 , respectively—in the range of Σ _IR for the Orion star-forming core and the nuclei of Arp 220. The NE core, previously speculated to have an active galactic nucleus (AGN), has starburst-like mid-IR colors. In contrast, the VV 114E SW core has AGN-like colors. Approximately 40 star-forming knots with L _IR ∼ 0.02–5 × 10 ^10 L _⊙ are identified, 28% of which have no optical counterpart. Finally, diffuse emission accounts for 40%–60% of the mid-IR emission. Mostly notably, filamentary polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission stochastically excited by UV and optical photons accounts for half of the 7.7 μ m light of VV 114. This study illustrates the ability of JWST to detect obscured compact activity and distributed PAH emission in the most extreme starburst galaxies in the local universe.
Keywords
