First detection of ices in intermediate-mass young stellar objects beyond the Milky Way

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: De Marchi, Guido, Habel, Nolan, Meixner, Margaret, Biazzo, Katia, Giardino, Giovanna, Sabbi, Elena, Rogers, Ciaran, Jaspers, Jeroen, Robberto, Massimo, Zeidler, Peter, Jones, Olivia C., Fahrion, Katja, Hirschauer, Alec S., Keyes, Charles D., Soderblom, David R., Lenkic, Laura, Nayak, Omnarayani, Brandl, Bernhard
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author De Marchi, Guido
Habel, Nolan
Meixner, Margaret
Biazzo, Katia
Giardino, Giovanna
Sabbi, Elena
Rogers, Ciaran
Jaspers, Jeroen
Robberto, Massimo
Zeidler, Peter
Jones, Olivia C.
Fahrion, Katja
Hirschauer, Alec S.
Keyes, Charles D.
Soderblom, David R.
Lenkic, Laura
Nayak, Omnarayani
Brandl, Bernhard
author_facet De Marchi, Guido
Habel, Nolan
Meixner, Margaret
Biazzo, Katia
Giardino, Giovanna
Sabbi, Elena
Rogers, Ciaran
Jaspers, Jeroen
Robberto, Massimo
Zeidler, Peter
Jones, Olivia C.
Fahrion, Katja
Hirschauer, Alec S.
Keyes, Charles D.
Soderblom, David R.
Lenkic, Laura
Nayak, Omnarayani
Brandl, Bernhard
contents Using NIRSpec on JWST, we studied a sample of 15 intermediate-mass (1.8-4.1 Msun) young stellar objects (YSOs) previously identified with MIRI photometry in the low-metallicity NGC 346 star-forming cluster in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). All objects, observed in the 1.7-5.3 micron range, show strong hydrogen recombination lines in the Paschen, Brackett, Pfund, and Humphreys series, confirming their very young ages. The spectra of 11 YSOs show prominent absorption bands from the three most important ice species (H2O, CO2, CO), marking the first detection of these ices in intermediate-mass YSOs beyond our Galaxy. In three YSOs, water ice appears to be in crystalline form. In some objects, we also detect 13CO2 and OCS ices -- never before observed beyond the Milky Way (MW) -- and methanol ice in at least one star. We compared the column densities of H2O, CO2, and CO ices with those measured in more and less massive protostars in the MW and Large Magellanic Cloud, finding that in NGC 346 ice column densities reach values nearly an order of magnitude lower than in more massive objects (~1x10^{17} cm-2 for water and ~1x10^{16} cm-2 for CO2 and CO). However, the relative proportions of the ice species abundances do not differ from those in massive MW YSOs. This suggests that metallicity may not significantly affect ice chemistry in protoplanetary discs and that, shielded by the protostellar envelope or deep in the midplane, circumstellar material is likely impervious to the radiation environment.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_13315
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle First detection of ices in intermediate-mass young stellar objects beyond the Milky Way
De Marchi, Guido
Habel, Nolan
Meixner, Margaret
Biazzo, Katia
Giardino, Giovanna
Sabbi, Elena
Rogers, Ciaran
Jaspers, Jeroen
Robberto, Massimo
Zeidler, Peter
Jones, Olivia C.
Fahrion, Katja
Hirschauer, Alec S.
Keyes, Charles D.
Soderblom, David R.
Lenkic, Laura
Nayak, Omnarayani
Brandl, Bernhard
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Using NIRSpec on JWST, we studied a sample of 15 intermediate-mass (1.8-4.1 Msun) young stellar objects (YSOs) previously identified with MIRI photometry in the low-metallicity NGC 346 star-forming cluster in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). All objects, observed in the 1.7-5.3 micron range, show strong hydrogen recombination lines in the Paschen, Brackett, Pfund, and Humphreys series, confirming their very young ages. The spectra of 11 YSOs show prominent absorption bands from the three most important ice species (H2O, CO2, CO), marking the first detection of these ices in intermediate-mass YSOs beyond our Galaxy. In three YSOs, water ice appears to be in crystalline form. In some objects, we also detect 13CO2 and OCS ices -- never before observed beyond the Milky Way (MW) -- and methanol ice in at least one star. We compared the column densities of H2O, CO2, and CO ices with those measured in more and less massive protostars in the MW and Large Magellanic Cloud, finding that in NGC 346 ice column densities reach values nearly an order of magnitude lower than in more massive objects (~1x10^{17} cm-2 for water and ~1x10^{16} cm-2 for CO2 and CO). However, the relative proportions of the ice species abundances do not differ from those in massive MW YSOs. This suggests that metallicity may not significantly affect ice chemistry in protoplanetary discs and that, shielded by the protostellar envelope or deep in the midplane, circumstellar material is likely impervious to the radiation environment.
title First detection of ices in intermediate-mass young stellar objects beyond the Milky Way
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.13315