TY - JOUR
T1 - Infrared emission from the radio supernebula in NGC 5253
T2 - A proto-globular cluster?
AU - Gorjian, Varoujan
AU - Turner, Jean L.
AU - Beck, Sara C.
N1 - Funding Information:
special efforts of Randy Campbell, Fred Chaffee, and Barbara Schaefer in difficult circumstances. We also thank Peter Conti, Bruce Elmegreen, Tim Heckman, Kelsey Johnson, Ellen Zwei-bel, and Dick McCray for helpful discussions. J. L. T. is supported by NSF grant AST 00-71276, and V. G. thanks the National Research Council. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED), which is operated by JPL, California Institute of Technology, under contract with NASA.
PY - 2001/6/10
Y1 - 2001/6/10
N2 - Hidden from optical view in the starburst region of the dwarf galaxy NGC 5253 lies an intense radio source with an unusual spectrum, which could be interpreted variously as nebular gas ionized by a young stellar cluster or nonthermal emission from a radio supernova or an active galactic nucleus. We have obtained 11.7 and 18.7 μm images of this region at the Keck telescope and find that it is an extremely strong mid-infrared emitter. The infrared-to-radio flux ratio rules out a supernova and is consistent with an H II region excited by a dense cluster of young stars. This "supernebula" provides at least 15% of the total bolometric luminosity of the galaxy. Its excitation requires 105-106 stars, giving it the total mass and size (1-2 pc diameter) of a globular cluster. However, its high obscuration, small size, and high gas density all argue that it is very young, no more than a few hundred thousand years old. This may be the youngest globular cluster yet observed.
AB - Hidden from optical view in the starburst region of the dwarf galaxy NGC 5253 lies an intense radio source with an unusual spectrum, which could be interpreted variously as nebular gas ionized by a young stellar cluster or nonthermal emission from a radio supernova or an active galactic nucleus. We have obtained 11.7 and 18.7 μm images of this region at the Keck telescope and find that it is an extremely strong mid-infrared emitter. The infrared-to-radio flux ratio rules out a supernova and is consistent with an H II region excited by a dense cluster of young stars. This "supernebula" provides at least 15% of the total bolometric luminosity of the galaxy. Its excitation requires 105-106 stars, giving it the total mass and size (1-2 pc diameter) of a globular cluster. However, its high obscuration, small size, and high gas density all argue that it is very young, no more than a few hundred thousand years old. This may be the youngest globular cluster yet observed.
KW - Galaxies: Dwarf
KW - Galaxies: Individual (NGC 5253)
KW - Galaxies: Star clusters
KW - Galaxies: Starburst
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0035838147&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1086/320923
DO - 10.1086/320923
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AN - SCOPUS:0035838147
SN - 0004-637X
VL - 554
SP - L29-L32
JO - Astrophysical Journal
JF - Astrophysical Journal
IS - 1 PART 2
ER -