The Optical to Infrared 0.6–5.3 μm Dust Extinction Law of the Milky Way with JWST NIRSpec: Westerlund 2

Abstract

The interstellar extinction law is important for interpreting observations and inferring the properties of interstellar dust grains. Based on the 993 prism/CLEAR spectra from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), we investigate the 0.6–5.3 μ m interstellar dust extinction law. We propose a pair method to obtain the reddening curves based only on JWST observed spectra. Most of the high-extinction sources are toward the young star cluster Westerlund 2. The infrared 1.0–5.3 μ m reddening curves agree with the power law A _λ ∝ λ ^− ^α well. We determine an average value of α = 1.98 ± 0.15, which is consistent with the average value of the Galaxy. We find that α may be variable and independent of R _V . With the derived α , we convert the reddening curves into the extinction curves and establish the nonparameterized α -dependent extinction curves in the wavelength range of 0.6–5.3 μ m. At λ < 1 μ m, the derived extinction law is not well described by the parameterized power-law-type curve. Our nonparameterized α -dependent extinction curves are suitable for the extinction correction of JWST-based photometry and spectra measurements at 0.6–5.3 μ m. We also provide the extinction coefficients for the JWST NIRCam bandpasses with different α .

Keywords

• Interstellar dust extinction
• Interstellar reddening
• Interstellar extinction
• Reddening law
• Star clusters