The Morpho-kinematic Architecture of Super Star Clusters in the Center of NGC 253
Journal article, 2022

The center of the nearby galaxy NGC 253 hosts a population of more than a dozen super star clusters (SSCs) that are still in the process of forming. The majority of the star formation of the burst is concentrated in these SSCs, and the starburst is powering a multiphase outflow from the galaxy. In this work, we measure the 350 GHz dust continuum emission toward the center of NGC 253 at 47 mas (0.8 pc) resolution using data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. We report the detection of 350 GHz (dust) continuum emission in the outflow for the first time, associated with the prominent South-West streamer. In this feature, the dust emission has a width of approximate to 8 pc, is located at the outer edge of the CO emission, and corresponds to a molecular gas mass of similar to(8-17)x10(6) M (circle dot). In the starburst nucleus, we measure the resolved radial profiles, sizes, and molecular gas masses of the SSCs. Compared to previous work at the somewhat lower spatial resolution, the SSCs here break apart into smaller substructures with radii 0.4-0.7 pc. In projection, the SSCs, dust, and dense molecular gas appear to be arranged as a thin, almost linear, structure roughly 155 pc in length. The morphology and kinematics of this structure can be well explained as gas following x (2) orbits at the center of a barred potential. We constrain the morpho-kinematic arrangement of the SSCs themselves, finding that an elliptical, angular-momentum-conserving ring is a good description of both the morphology and kinematics of the SSCs.

Author

Rebecca C. Levy

University of Maryland

University of Arizona

Alberto D. Bolatto

University of Maryland

Flatiron Institute

National Radio Astronomy Observatory

Adam K. Leroy

Ohio State University

Mattia C. Sormani

Heidelberg University

Kimberly L. Emig

National Radio Astronomy Observatory

Mark Gorski

Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics

Laura Lenkic

NASA Ames Research Center

Elisabeth A. C. Mills

University of Kansas

Elizabeth Tarantino

University of Maryland

Peter Teuben

University of Maryland

Sylvain Veilleux

University of Maryland

Fabian Walter

Max Planck Society

Astrophysical Journal

0004-637X (ISSN) 1538-4357 (eISSN)

Vol. 935 1 19

Subject Categories

Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology

Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics

Materials Chemistry

DOI

10.3847/1538-4357/ac7b7a

More information

Latest update

8/29/2022