Nowhere Left to Hide: Uncovering All of the Massive Young Embedded Star Clusters in the Antennae with JWST

TL;DR

Using JWST's high-resolution imaging, the study uncovers a complete population of deeply embedded, young star clusters in the Antennae galaxies, revealing their properties and significance in galaxy-wide star formation.

Contribution

First comprehensive identification and characterization of all massive, embedded young star clusters in the Antennae galaxies using JWST data.

Findings

Discovered 45 young embedded star clusters, 40 of which are new.

All identified clusters are extremely young (< 2.5 Myr) with significant extinction.

Embedded clusters contribute about 60% of the galaxy pair's ionizing photon luminosity.

Abstract

The Antennae galaxies merger produces the brightest infrared emission of any galaxy within ~20 Mpc, mostly from intense star formation taking place in supergiant molecular cloud complexes in the overlap region. Here, we present new, high-resolution NIRCam and MIRI images of the Antennae galaxies taken with the F150W, F187N, F335M, F360M, F410M, and F770W filters on JWST to search for the predicted but as-yet-undiscovered population of deeply embedded, optically obscured star clusters. We identify a population of 45 sources, 40 previously unknown, with high Bralpha/Halpha and Paalpha/Halpha flux ratios which are likely very young clusters still embedded or just emerging from their natal cocoons, and estimate their age, extinction (A_V), and mass. We find that all are extremely young (< 2.5 Myr), have A_V between 2 and 10 mag, and masses between ~ 10^4 and several x 10^6~Msun. We believe we have now uncovered all clusters with M > 3 x 10^4 Msun and A_V > 2 mag in the Antennae. While our sample represents a small fraction(~15%) of clusters younger than 3~Myr by number, it dominates the ionizing photon luminosity across the galaxy pair (~60%). We find elevated H_2/PAH ratios of the ISM surrounding the most massive pair of embedded clusters, supporting the idea that merger-induced shock-heated gas play an important role in the formation of extremely massive clusters.