MEGARA-IFU detection of extended HeII4686 nebular emission in the central region of NGC1569 and its ionization budget

TL;DR

This study uses integral field spectroscopy to detect extended nebular HeII4686 emission in NGC1569's core, linking it to Wolf-Rayet stars in a young super star cluster and analyzing the ionization budget.

Contribution

First spatially resolved detection of extended HeII4686 nebular emission in NGC1569, confirming WR stars as the ionization source and providing detailed physical parameters.

Findings

HeII4686 emission extends over ~150 pc around SSC-A.

124±11 WR stars are inferred in SSC-A.

The ionizing photon rate matches stellar population models at ~4 Myr.

Abstract

We here report the detection of extended HeII4686 nebular emission in the central region of NGC1569 using the integral field spectrograph MEGARA at the 10.4-m Gran Telescopio Canarias. The observations cover a Field of View (FoV) of 12.5 arcsec x 11.3 arcsec at seeing-limited spatial resolution of ~15 pc and at a spectral resolution of R=6000 in the wavelength range 4330--5200 Angstrom. The emission extends over a semi-circular arc of ~40 pc width and ~150 pc diameter around the super star cluster A (SSC-A). The Av derived using Balmer decrement varies from the Galactic value of 1.6 mag to a maximum of ~4.5 mag, with a mean value of 2.65+/-0.60 mag. We infer 124+/-11 Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars in SSC-A using the HeII4686 broad feature and Av=2.3 mag. The He+ ionizing photon rate from these WR stars is sufficient to explain the luminosity of the HeII4686 nebula. The observationally-determined total He+ and H0 ionizing photon rates, their ratio, and the observed number of WR stars in SSC-A are all consistent with the predictions of simple stellar population models at an age of 4.0+/-0.5 Myr, and mass of (5.5+/-0.5)x10^5 Msun. Our observations reinforce the absence of WR stars in SSC-B, the second most massive cluster in the FoV. None of the other locations in our FoV where HeII4686 emission has been reported from narrow-band imaging observations contain WR stars.