PHANGS-JWST First Results: The Influence of Stellar Clusters on Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Nearby Galaxies
Abstract
We present a comparison of theoretical predictions of dust continuum and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission with new JWST observations in three nearby galaxies: NGC 628, NGC 1365, and NGC 7496. Our analysis focuses on a total of 1063 compact stellar clusters and 2654 stellar associations previously characterized by the Hubble Space Telescope in the three galaxies. We find that the distributions and trends in the observed PAH-focused infrared colors generally agree with theoretical expectations, and that the bulk of the observations is more aligned with models of larger, ionized PAHs. These JWST data usher in a new era of probing interstellar dust and studying how the intense radiation fields near stellar clusters and associations play a role in shaping the physical properties of PAHs.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- February 2023
- DOI:
- 10.3847/2041-8213/aca769
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2212.00130
- Bibcode:
- 2023ApJ...944L..23D
- Keywords:
-
- Star clusters;
- Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons;
- Spiral galaxies;
- 1567;
- 1280;
- 1560;
- Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
- E-Print:
- 8 pages, accepted as part of a PHANGS-JWST Focus Issue to appear in ApJ