Piecing together the puzzle of NGC 5253: abundances, kinematics and WR stars

TL;DR

This study uses optical spectroscopy to analyze the kinematics, chemical abundances, and Wolf-Rayet star populations in the central region of NGC 5253, revealing localized gas flows, outflows, and chemical enrichment patterns.

Contribution

It provides detailed spatially-resolved insights into the gas dynamics and chemical distribution near the starburst core, including the detection of WR stars and the impact of high-density regions on metal mixing.

Findings

Detection of 11 WR sources, mostly WCE types, not coincident with the supernebula.

Identification of a localized ionized gas outflow from the supernebula clusters.

Confirmation of flat O/H and N/H abundance profiles with a central N/O enhancement.

Abstract

We present Gemini-S/GMOS-IFU optical spectroscopy of four regions near the centre of the nearby (3.8 Mpc) dwarf starburst galaxy NGC 5253. This galaxy is famous for hosting a radio supernebula containing two deeply embedded massive super star clusters, surrounded by a region of enhanced nitrogen abundance that has been linked to the presence of WR stars. We detected 11 distinct sources of red WR bump (CIV) emission over a 20" (~350 pc) area, each consistent with the presence of ~1 WCE-type star. WC stars are not found coincident with the supernebula, although WN stars have previously been detected here. We performed a multi-component decomposition of the H\alpha\ line across all four fields and mapped the kinematics of the narrow and broad (FWHM = 100-250 km/s) components. These maps paint a picture of localised gas flows, as part of multiple overlapping bubbles and filaments driven by the star clusters throughout the starburst. We confirm the presence of a strong H\alpha\ velocity gradient over ~4.5" (~80 pc) coincident with the region of N/O enhancement, and high gas density known from previous study, and interpret this as an accelerating ionized gas outflow from the supernebula clusters. We measure the ionized gas abundances in a number of regions in the outer IFU positions and combine these with measurements from the literature to assess the radial abundance distribution. We find that the O/H and N/H profiles are consistent with being flat. Only the central 50 pc exhibits the well-known N/O enhancement, and we propose that the unusually high densities/pressures in the supernebula region have acted to impede the escape of metal-enriched hot winds from the star clusters and allow them to mix with the cooler phases, thus allowing these freshly processed chemicals to be seen in the optical.