The Astrophysical Journal (Jan 2024)
Hidden Gems on a Ring: Infant Massive Clusters and Their Formation Timeline Unveiled by ALMA, HST, and JWST in NGC 3351
- Jiayi Sun,
- Hao He,
- Kyle Batschkun,
- Rebecca C. Levy,
- Kimberly Emig,
- M. Jimena Rodríguez,
- Hamid Hassani,
- Adam K. Leroy,
- Eva Schinnerer,
- Eve C. Ostriker,
- Christine D. Wilson,
- Alberto D. Bolatto,
- Elisabeth A. C. Mills,
- Erik Rosolowsky,
- Janice C. Lee,
- Daniel A. Dale,
- Kirsten L. Larson,
- David A. Thilker,
- Leonardo Ubeda,
- Bradley C. Whitmore,
- Thomas G. Williams,
- Ashley T. Barnes,
- Frank Bigiel,
- Mélanie Chevance,
- Simon C. O. Glover,
- Kathryn Grasha,
- Brent Groves,
- Jonathan D. Henshaw,
- Rémy Indebetouw,
- María J. Jiménez-Donaire,
- Ralf S. Klessen,
- Eric W. Koch,
- Daizhong Liu,
- Smita Mathur,
- Sharon Meidt,
- Shyam H. Menon,
- Justus Neumann,
- Francesca Pinna,
- Miguel Querejeta,
- Mattia C. Sormani,
- Robin G. Tress
Affiliations
- Jiayi Sun
- ORCiD
- Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University , 4 Ivy Lane, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA ; [email protected]; Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University , 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON L8S 4M1, Canada; Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA), University of Toronto , 60 St George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H8, Canada
- Hao He
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University , 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON L8S 4M1, Canada
- Kyle Batschkun
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University , 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON L8S 4M1, Canada
- Rebecca C. Levy
- ORCiD
- Steward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
- Kimberly Emig
- ORCiD
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory , 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA
- M. Jimena Rodríguez
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA; Instituto de Astrofísica de La Plata , CONICET–UNLP, Paseo del Bosque S/N, B1900FWA La Plata, Argentina
- Hamid Hassani
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Alberta , Edmonton, AB T6G 2E1, Canada
- Adam K. Leroy
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The Ohio State University , 140 West 18th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA; Center for Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (CCAPP) , 191 West Woodruff Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
- Eva Schinnerer
- ORCiD
- Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie , Königstuhl 17, D-69117, Heidelberg, Germany
- Eve C. Ostriker
- ORCiD
- Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University , 4 Ivy Lane, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA ; [email protected]
- Christine D. Wilson
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University , 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, ON L8S 4M1, Canada
- Alberto D. Bolatto
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland , 4296 Stadium Drive, College Park, MD 20742, USA
- Elisabeth A. C. Mills
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas , 1251 Wescoe Hall Drive, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA
- Erik Rosolowsky
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Alberta , Edmonton, AB T6G 2E1, Canada
- Janice C. Lee
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Daniel A. Dale
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Wyoming , Laramie, WY 82071, USA
- Kirsten L. Larson
- ORCiD
- AURA for the European Space Agency (ESA), Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- David A. Thilker
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University , Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Leonardo Ubeda
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Bradley C. Whitmore
- ORCiD
- Space Telescope Science Institute , 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
- Thomas G. Williams
- ORCiD
- Sub-department of Astrophysics, Department of Physics, University of Oxford , Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH, UK
- Ashley T. Barnes
- ORCiD
- European Southern Observatory , Karl-Schwarzschild Straße 2, D-85748 Garching bei München, Germany
- Frank Bigiel
- ORCiD
- Argelander-Institut für Astronomie, Universität Bonn , Auf dem Hügel 71, 53121 Bonn, Germany
- Mélanie Chevance
- ORCiD
- Universität Heidelberg , Zentrum für Astronomie, Institut für Theoretische Astrophysik, Albert-Ueberle-Str 2, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany; Cosmic Origins of Life (COOL) Research DAO 41
- Simon C. O. Glover
- ORCiD
- Universität Heidelberg , Zentrum für Astronomie, Institut für Theoretische Astrophysik, Albert-Ueberle-Str 2, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany
- Kathryn Grasha
- ORCiD
- Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University , Canberra, ACT 2611, Australia; ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) , Australia
- Brent Groves
- ORCiD
- International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, University of Western Australia , 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
- Jonathan D. Henshaw
- ORCiD
- Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie , Königstuhl 17, D-69117, Heidelberg, Germany; Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University , IC2, Liverpool Science Park, 146 Brownlow Hill, Liverpool L3 5RF, UK
- Rémy Indebetouw
- ORCiD
- National Radio Astronomy Observatory , 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903, USA; University of Virginia , 530 McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA
- María J. Jiménez-Donaire
- ORCiD
- Observatorio Astronómico Nacional (IGN) , C/Alfonso XII, 3, E-28014 Madrid, Spain
- Ralf S. Klessen
- ORCiD
- Universität Heidelberg , Zentrum für Astronomie, Institut für Theoretische Astrophysik, Albert-Ueberle-Str 2, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany; Universität Heidelberg, Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Wissenschaftliches Rechnen , Im Neuenheimer Feld 205, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany
- Eric W. Koch
- ORCiD
- Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Daizhong Liu
- ORCiD
- Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik , Giessenbachstraße 1, D-85748 Garching, Germany
- Smita Mathur
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The Ohio State University , 140 West 18th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA; Center for Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (CCAPP) , 191 West Woodruff Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
- Sharon Meidt
- ORCiD
- Sterrenkundig Observatorium, Universiteit Gent , Krijgslaan 281 S9, B-9000 Gent, Belgium
- Shyam H. Menon
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers, T he State University of New Jersey, 136 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA; Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute , 162 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA
- Justus Neumann
- ORCiD
- Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie , Königstuhl 17, D-69117, Heidelberg, Germany
- Francesca Pinna
- ORCiD
- Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie , Königstuhl 17, D-69117, Heidelberg, Germany; Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias , C/ Vía Láctea s/n, E-38205, La Laguna, Spain; Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna , Av. del Astrofísico Francisco Sánchez s/n, E-38206, La Laguna, Spain
- Miguel Querejeta
- ORCiD
- Observatorio Astronómico Nacional (IGN) , C/Alfonso XII, 3, E-28014 Madrid, Spain
- Mattia C. Sormani
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of Surrey , Guildford GU2 7XH, UK
- Robin G. Tress
- ORCiD
- Institute of Physics , Laboratory for Galaxy Evolution and Spectral Modeling, EPFL, Observatoire de Sauverny, Chemin Pegais 51, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad3de6
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 967,
no. 2
p. 133
Abstract
We use 0.1″ observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and JWST to study young massive clusters (YMCs) in their embedded “infant” phase across the central starburst ring in NGC 3351. Our new ALMA data reveal 18 bright and compact (sub-)millimeter continuum sources, of which 8 have counterparts in JWST images and only 6 have counterparts in HST images. Based on the ALMA continuum and molecular line data, as well as ancillary measurements for the HST and JWST counterparts, we identify 14 sources as infant star clusters with high stellar and/or gas masses (∼10 ^5 M _⊙ ), small radii (≲ 5 pc), large escape velocities (6–10 km s ^−1 ), and short freefall times (0.5–1 Myr). Their multiwavelength properties motivate us to divide them into four categories, likely corresponding to four evolutionary stages from starless clumps to exposed H ii region–cluster complexes. Leveraging age estimates for HST-identified clusters in the same region, we infer an evolutionary timeline, ranging from ∼1–2 Myr before cluster formation as starless clumps, to ∼4–6 Myr after as exposed H ii region–cluster complexes. Finally, we show that the YMCs make up a substantial fraction of recent star formation across the ring, exhibit a nonuniform azimuthal distribution without a very coherent evolutionary trend along the ring, and are capable of driving large-scale gas outflows.
Keywords
