The Hidden Life of Stars: Embedded Beginnings to Asymptotic Giant Branch Endings in the PHANGS–JWST Sample. I. Catalog of Mid-infrared Sources

Abstract We present a multiwavelength catalog of mid-infrared-selected compact sources in 19 nearby galaxies, combining JWST NIRCam/MIRI, Hubble Space Telescope UV–optical broadband, H α narrowband, and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array CO observations. We detect 24,945 compact sources at 21 μ m and 55,581 at 10 μ m. Artificial star tests show 50% completeness limits of ∼5 μ Jy for the 10 μ m catalog, and ∼24 μ Jy for the 21 μ m catalog. We find that 21 μ m compact sources contribute ∼20% of the total galaxy emission in that band, but only contribute 5% at 10 μ m. We classify sources using stellar evolution and population synthesis models combined with empirical classifications derived from the literature. Our classifications include H α -bright and dust-embedded optically faint clusters, red supergiants, oxygen-rich and carbon-rich asymptotic giant branch stars, and a range of rarer stellar types. In sampling a broad range of star-forming environments with a uniform, well-characterized selection, this catalog enables analyses of infrared-bright stellar populations. We find that H α -faint sources account for only 10% of dusty (likely young) clusters, implying that the infrared-bright, optically faint phase of cluster evolution is short compared to the H α -bright stage. The luminosity functions of 10 and 21 μ m sources follow power-law distributions, with the 21 μ m slope (−1.7 ± 0.1) similar to that of giant molecular cloud mass functions and ultraviolet bright star-forming complexes, while the 10 μ m slope (−2.0 ± 0.1) is closer to that of young stellar clusters.

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Publication Details

Journal
The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
Published
2026-04-21
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/ae4aa5
Primary Topic
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

The Hidden Life of Stars: Embedded Beginnings to Asymptotic Giant Branch Endings in the PHANGS–JWST Sample. I. Catalog of Mid-infrared Sources

Karin M. Sandstrom, David A. Thilker, M. Boquien, Sharon E. Meidt et al.
The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
article

The Hidden Life of Stars: Embedded Beginnings to Asymptotic Giant Branch Endings in the PHANGS–JWST Sample. I. Catalog of Mid-infrared Sources

Karin M. Sandstrom, David A. Thilker, M. Boquien, Sharon E. Meidt, J. Pety, Ryan Chown, Erik Rosolowsky, Lise Ramambason, Ismael Pessa, Hamid Hassani, Miguel Querejeta, Daniel Maschmann, Gagandeep S. Anand, Elias K. Oakes, Ashley T. Barnes, Thomas G. Williams, Sumit K. Sarbadhicary, Kathryn Grasha, Enrico Congiu, Bradley C. Whitmore, Jessica Sutter, Adam K. Leroy, Fu-Heng Liang, Ivan S. Gerasimov, Leonardo Úbeda, Oleg V. Egorov, R. Indebetouw, Yixian Cao, Janice Lee, M J Rodríguez, Daniel A. Dale
article en

Abstract

Abstract We present a multiwavelength catalog of mid-infrared-selected compact sources in 19 nearby galaxies, combining JWST NIRCam/MIRI, Hubble Space Telescope UV–optical broadband, H α narrowband, and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array CO observations. We detect 24,945 compact sources at 21 μ m and 55,581 at 10 μ m. Artificial star tests show 50% completeness limits of ∼5 μ Jy for the 10 μ m catalog, and ∼24 μ Jy for the 21 μ m catalog. We find that 21 μ m compact sources contribute ∼20% of the total galaxy emission in that band, but only contribute 5% at 10 μ m. We classify sources using stellar evolution and population synthesis models combined with empirical classifications derived from the literature. Our classifications include H α -bright and dust-embedded optically faint clusters, red supergiants, oxygen-rich and carbon-rich asymptotic giant branch stars, and a range of rarer stellar types. In sampling a broad range of star-forming environments with a uniform, well-characterized selection, this catalog enables analyses of infrared-bright stellar populations. We find that H α -faint sources account for only 10% of dusty (likely young) clusters, implying that the infrared-bright, optically faint phase of cluster evolution is short compared to the H α -bright stage. The luminosity functions of 10 and 21 μ m sources follow power-law distributions, with the 21 μ m slope (−1.7 ± 0.1) similar to that of giant molecular cloud mass functions and ultraviolet bright star-forming complexes, while the 10 μ m slope (−2.0 ± 0.1) is closer to that of young stellar clusters.

The Astrophysical Journal Supplement SeriesVol. 284(1)
Australian National University (AU), University of Wyoming (US), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Space Telescope Science Institute (US), European Southern Observatory (DE), Whitman College (US), University of Connecticut (US), Johns Hopkins University (US), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (AR), University of Alberta (CA), Heidelberg University (DE), National Radio Astronomy Observatory (US), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (FR), Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (DE), Ghent University (BE), Sorbonne Université (FR), University of Oxford (GB), ASTRO-3D (AU), Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (DE), Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté (FR), Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur (FR), European Southern Observatory (CL), Spanish National Observatory (ES), ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (AU), Ausonius Institut de Recherche sur l'Antiquité et le Moyen age (FR), Columbus Community Clinical Oncology Program (US), Instituto de Astrofísica de La Plata, University of Virginia (US), The Ohio State University (US)
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Canadian Space Agency, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Openalex Percentile: Top 16%
Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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