Detalles de publicación
PP 024050
Hidden Gems on a Ring: Infant Massive Clusters and Their Formation Timeline Unveiled by ALMA, HST, and JWST in NGC 3351
(1) Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University,
(2) Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University,
(3) Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA),
(4) Steward Observatory, University of Arizona,
(5) National Radio Astronomy Observatory,
(6) Space Telescope Science Institute,
(7) Instituto de Astrofisica de La Plata, CONICET–UNLP,
(8) Department of Physics, University of Alberta,
(9) Department of Astronomy, The Ohio State University,
(10) Center for Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics (CCAPP),
(11) Max-Planck-Institut f¨ur Astronomie,
(12) Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland,
(13) Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kansas,
(14) Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Wyoming,
(15) AURA for the European Space Agency (ESA), Space Telescope Science Institute,
(16) Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University,
(17) Sub-department of Astrophysics, Department of Physics, University of Oxford,
(18) European Southern Observatory,
(19) Argelander-Institut f¨ur Astronomie, Universit¨at Bonn,
(20) Universit¨at Heidelberg, Zentrum f¨ur Astronomie, Institut f¨ur Theoretische Astrophysik,
(21) Cosmic Origins Of Life (COOL) Research DAO,
(22) Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University,
(23) ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D),
(24) International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, University of Western Australia,
(25) Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University,
(26) University of Virginia,
(27) Observatorio Astron´omico Nacional (IGN),
(28) Universit¨at Heidelberg, Interdisziplin¨ares Zentrum f¨ur Wissenschaftliches Rechnen,
(29) Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian,
(30) Max-Planck-Institut f¨ur extraterrestrische Physik,
(31) Sterrenkundig Observatorium, Universiteit Gent,
(32) Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey,
(33) Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute,
(34) Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias,
(35) Departamento de Astrofisica, Universidad de La Laguna,
(36) Department of Physics, University of Surrey,
(37) Institute of Physics, Laboratory for galaxy evolution and spectral modelling, EPFL.
We study young massive clusters (YMCs) in their embedded "infant" phase with ∼0.′′1 ALMA, HST, and JWST observations targeting the central starburst ring in NGC 3351, a nearby Milky Way analog galaxy. 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 (∼105M⊙), small radii (≲5pc), large escape velocities (6−10km/s), and short free-fall times (0.5−1Myr). Their multiwavelength properties motivate us to divide them into four categories, likely corresponding to four evolutionary stages from starless clumps to exposed HII region-cluster complexes. Leveraging age estimates for HST-identified clusters in the same region, we infer an evolutionary timeline going from ∼1-2 Myr before cluster formation as starless clumps, to ∼4-6 Myr after as exposed HII region-cluster complexes. Finally, we show that the YMCs make up a substantial fraction of recent star formation across the ring, exhibit an non-uniform azimuthal distribution without a very coherent evolutionary trend along the ring, and are capable of driving large-scale gas outflows.