TY - JOUR
T1 - Hidden Gems on a Ring
T2 - Infant Massive Clusters and Their Formation Timeline Unveiled by ALMA, HST, and JWST in NGC 3351
AU - Sun, Jiayi
AU - He, Hao
AU - Batschkun, Kyle
AU - Levy, Rebecca C.
AU - Emig, Kimberly
AU - Rodríguez, M. Jimena
AU - Hassani, Hamid
AU - Leroy, Adam K.
AU - Schinnerer, Eva
AU - Ostriker, Eve C.
AU - Wilson, Christine D.
AU - Bolatto, Alberto D.
AU - Mills, Elisabeth A.C.
AU - Rosolowsky, Erik
AU - Lee, Janice C.
AU - Dale, Daniel A.
AU - Larson, Kirsten L.
AU - Thilker, David A.
AU - Ubeda, Leonardo
AU - Whitmore, Bradley C.
AU - Williams, Thomas G.
AU - Barnes, Ashley T.
AU - Bigiel, Frank
AU - Chevance, Mélanie
AU - Glover, Simon C.O.
AU - Grasha, Kathryn
AU - Groves, Brent
AU - Henshaw, Jonathan D.
AU - Indebetouw, Rémy
AU - Jiménez-Donaire, María J.
AU - Klessen, Ralf S.
AU - Koch, Eric W.
AU - Liu, Daizhong
AU - Mathur, Smita
AU - Meidt, Sharon
AU - Menon, Shyam H.
AU - Neumann, Justus
AU - Pinna, Francesca
AU - Querejeta, Miguel
AU - Sormani, Mattia C.
AU - Tress, Robin G.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.
PY - 2024/6/1
Y1 - 2024/6/1
N2 - 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 (∼105 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.
AB - 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 (∼105 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.
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U2 - 10.3847/1538-4357/ad3de6
DO - 10.3847/1538-4357/ad3de6
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85195101187
SN - 0004-637X
VL - 967
JO - Astrophysical Journal
JF - Astrophysical Journal
IS - 2
M1 - 133
ER -