Young Stellar Objects in NGC 346: A JWST NIRCam/MIRI Imaging Survey
Abstract We present a JWST imaging survey with NIRCam and MIRI of NGC 346, the brightest star-forming region in the Small Magellanic Cloud. By combining aperture and point-spread function photometry of 11 wavelength bands across these two instruments, we have detected more than 200,000 unique sources. Using a near-infrared color analysis, we observe various evolved and young populations, including 196 young stellar objects (YSOs) and pre-main-sequence stars suitable for forthcoming spectroscopic studies. We expand upon this work, creating mid-infrared color–magnitude diagrams and determining color cuts to identify 833 reddened sources which are YSO candidates. We observe that these candidate sources are spatially associated with regions of dusty, filamentary nebulosity. Furthermore, we fit model YSO spectral energy distributions to a selection of sources with detections across all of our MIRI bands. We classify with a high degree of confidence 23 YSOs in this sample and estimate their radii, bolometric temperatures, luminosities, and masses. We detect YSOs approaching 1 M ⊙ , the lowest-mass extragalactic YSOs confirmed to date.
Authors
- Elena Sabbi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2954-7643)
- Peter Zeidler (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6091-7924)
- Bernhard R. Brandl (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9737-169X)
- Patrick Kavanagh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6872-2358)
- Omnarayani Nayak (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6576-6339)
- M. Meixner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0522-3743)
- Nolan Habel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2667-1676)
- Katja Fahrion (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2902-8608)
- K. Biazzo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1892-2180)
- Massimo Robberto (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9573-3199)
- Conor Nally (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7512-1662)
- Guido De Marchi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7906-3829)
- Laura Lenkić (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4023-8657)
- J. Jaspers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0577-1950)
- K. M. Pontoppidan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7552-1562)
- B. A. Sargent (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9855-8261)
- Alec S. Hirschauer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2954-8622)
- Olivia Jones (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4870-5547)
- David R. Soderblom (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0322-8161)
- Ciarán Rogers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5742-2261)
Institutions
- Leiden University (NL)
- Ames Research Center (US)
- Space Telescope Science Institute (US)
- Goddard Space Flight Center (US)
- Dublin Institute For Advanced Studies (IE)
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory (US)
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- National University of Ireland, Maynooth (IE)
- Astronomical Observatory of Rome (IT)
- Royal Observatory (GB)
- Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté (FR)
- European Space Research and Technology Centre (NL)
- UK Astronomy Technology Centre (GB)
- University of Edinburgh (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Published
- 2024-08-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad5343
- Citations
- 10
- Primary Topic
- Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.32
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Oak Ridge Associated Universities
- California Institute of Technology
- Space Telescope Science Institute
- Nuclear Safety and Security Commission
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- Goddard Space Flight Center
- Science and Technology Facilities Council