Clustered Star Formation in the Center of NGC 253 Contributes to Driving the Ionized Nuclear Wind
Journal article, 2021
We present new 3 mm observations of the ionized gas toward the nuclear starburst in the nearby (D similar to 3.5 Mpc) galaxy NGC 253. With ALMA, we detect emission from the H40 alpha and He40 alpha lines in the central 200 pc of this galaxy on spatial scales of similar to 4 pc. The recombination line emission primarily originates from a population of approximately a dozen embedded super star clusters in the early stages of formation. We find that emission from these clusters is characterized by electron temperatures ranging from 7000 to 10,000 K and measures an average singly ionized helium abundance Y (+) = 0.25 +/- 0.06, both of which are consistent with values measured for H ii regions in the center of the Milky Way. We also report the discovery of unusually broad line width recombination line emission originating from seven of the embedded clusters. We suggest that these clusters contribute to the launching of the large-scale hot wind observed to emanate from the central starburst. Finally, we use the measured recombination line fluxes to improve the characterization of overall embedded cluster properties, including the distribution of cluster masses and the fractional contribution of the clustered star formation to the total starburst, which we estimate is at least 50%.
Author
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University of Kansas
[Person db36f922-5e4f-4dac-a68b-d446390090fb not found]
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics
[Person d80f5ddb-70cc-4c14-a1e7-bcef5cd03809 not found]
Leiden University
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
[Person 897a91a0-ec91-47ba-b506-9d61511f8140 not found]
University of Maryland
Flatiron Institute
[Person d4db4977-7e4d-492a-9843-b2dede467dfd not found]
University of Maryland
[Person d5bb7817-ebf0-406f-b89f-66f6bf48ae96 not found]
Ohio State University
[Person 2fdf3c21-0ed8-4527-9033-27e9ddd7bd78 not found]
University of Florida
[Person 10509b69-51cf-4cd8-9b7c-7d89d9098652 not found]
Max Planck Society
[Person 1d864c57-ba91-41c5-b1d3-ab39285f96de not found]
University of Helsinki
[Person 98217a38-b98f-4afa-940a-b2551ba5f8b3 not found]
University of Maryland
[Person e4192930-59d9-4c13-8142-9a8f02bf462e not found]
Keio University
[Person bea2ad0b-ce98-4408-9965-d84551c208bf not found]
National Radio Astronomy Observatory Socorro
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
[Person 725119e9-e064-4792-ac7b-51d2fff6be59 not found]
Max Planck Society
[Person cf36ce9e-b5ab-4fa9-9639-dc96ca9e8348 not found]
Max Planck Society
[Person 31924119-b754-402d-95f2-c183a1262a35 not found]
National Radio Astronomy Observatory Socorro
Astrophysical Journal
0004-637X (ISSN) 1538-4357 (eISSN)
Vol. 919 2 105Subject Categories
Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences
Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics
DOI
10.3847/1538-4357/ac0fe8