The internal line-of-sight kinematics of NGC 346: the rotation of the core region

TL;DR

This study analyzes the internal stellar kinematics of NGC 346, revealing a rotating core component and an expanding gas bubble, providing insights into the cluster's formation and evolution.

Contribution

It presents the first detailed line-of-sight velocity analysis of NGC 346's core, identifying rotation and multiple stellar velocity groups linked to the cluster's formation history.

Findings

Detection of two distinct stellar velocity groups.

Identification of rotation in one velocity group.

Observation of an expanding ionized gas bubble.

Abstract

We present the stellar radial velocity analysis of the central 1x1' of the young massive Small Magellanic Cloud star cluster NGC 346. Using VLT/MUSE integral field spectroscopy in combination with Hubble Space Telescope photometry we extract 103 spectra of cluster member stars suited to measure accurate line-of-sight kinematics. The cluster member stars show two distinct velocity groups at v1 = -3.3 (+0.3/-0.2) km/s and v2 = 2.6 (+0.1/-0.1) km/s, relative to the systemic velocity of 165.5+/-0.2 km/s, and hint for a third group at v3 = 9.4 (+0.1/-0.1 km/s. We show that there is neither a correlation between the velocity groups and the spatial location of the stars, nor their locus on optical color-magnitude diagrams, which makes the stellar velocity a key parameter to separate individual stellar components in such a young star cluster. Velocity group 2 shows clear rotation with Omega2 = -0.4 +/- 0.1 1/Myr, corresponding to -4.9+/-0.7 km/s at radial distance of 10 pc from the center, a possible remnant of the formation process of NGC 346 through the hierarchical collapse of the giant molecular cloud. The ionizing gas has lost any natal kinematic imprint and shows clear expansion, driven by far ultra violet fluxes and stellar winds of the numerous OB stars in the cluster center. The size of this expanding bubble and its expansion velocity of 7.9 km/s is in excellent agreement with the estimate that the latest star formation episode occurred about two million years ago.