The Morpho-Kinematic Architecture of Super Star Clusters in the Center of NGC253

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution ALMA observations to analyze the structure, distribution, and kinematics of super star clusters and associated dust in the center of NGC 253, revealing new details about their morphology and outflow interactions.

Contribution

It provides the first detection of dust continuum emission in the outflow of NGC 253's center and characterizes the detailed morpho-kinematic structure of SSCs at sub-parsec resolution.

Findings

Detected 350 GHz dust emission in the outflow for the first time.

Resolved SSCs into smaller substructures with radii 0.4-0.7 pc.

Found SSCs arranged in an elliptical, angular momentum-conserving ring.

Abstract

The center of the nearby galaxy NGC\,253 hosts a population of more than a dozen super star clusters (SSCs) which 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 towards the center of NGC\,253 at 47~milliarcsecond (0.8 pc) resolution using data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). 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 $\approx$~8~pc, is located at the outer edge of the CO emission, and corresponds to a molecular gas mass of $\sim~(8-17)\times10^6$~M$_\odot$. In the starburst nucleus, we measure the resolved radial profiles, sizes, and molecular gas masses of the SSCs. Compared to previous work at 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 the both morphology and kinematics of the SSCs.