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Main Authors: Beck, Sara C., Turner, Jean L., Zweig, Elm, Black, John H., Ho, Paul T. P., Meier, David S., Silich, Sergiy, Cohen, Daniel P., Consiglio, S. Michelle, Ferraro, Nicholas G.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.09911
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author Beck, Sara C.
Turner, Jean L.
Zweig, Elm
Black, John H.
Ho, Paul T. P.
Meier, David S.
Silich, Sergiy
Cohen, Daniel P.
Consiglio, S. Michelle
Ferraro, Nicholas G.
author_facet Beck, Sara C.
Turner, Jean L.
Zweig, Elm
Black, John H.
Ho, Paul T. P.
Meier, David S.
Silich, Sergiy
Cohen, Daniel P.
Consiglio, S. Michelle
Ferraro, Nicholas G.
contents The nearby dwarf starburst NGC 5253 is dominated by a compact radio-infrared supernebula powered by a very young and bright embedded Super Star Cluster (SSC) of $\sim 10^9 L_\odot$. We observed this source and its surroundings over the 5-25$μ$m range with MIRI/MRS on JWST and in Paper I presented the JWST view of the region and its continuum features. We now present the more than 70 emission lines of HI, $H_2$ and metal ions detected by MIRI/MRS. We derive the extinction by comparing HI recombination to the free-free radio continuum and find that it is very flat, i.e., almost independent of wavelength, over this spectral range. Nebular conditions are consistent with young ($\lesssim5\times10^6$ years) and very massive stars. All regions show high excitation, but the spatial distribution of the high excitation lines suggests that photons with energies close to 50eV are escaping the supernebula core in spite of 35 magnitudes of visual extinction.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_09911
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle JWST View of the Supernebula in NGC 5253. II. Nebular Lines
Beck, Sara C.
Turner, Jean L.
Zweig, Elm
Black, John H.
Ho, Paul T. P.
Meier, David S.
Silich, Sergiy
Cohen, Daniel P.
Consiglio, S. Michelle
Ferraro, Nicholas G.
Astrophysics of Galaxies
The nearby dwarf starburst NGC 5253 is dominated by a compact radio-infrared supernebula powered by a very young and bright embedded Super Star Cluster (SSC) of $\sim 10^9 L_\odot$. We observed this source and its surroundings over the 5-25$μ$m range with MIRI/MRS on JWST and in Paper I presented the JWST view of the region and its continuum features. We now present the more than 70 emission lines of HI, $H_2$ and metal ions detected by MIRI/MRS. We derive the extinction by comparing HI recombination to the free-free radio continuum and find that it is very flat, i.e., almost independent of wavelength, over this spectral range. Nebular conditions are consistent with young ($\lesssim5\times10^6$ years) and very massive stars. All regions show high excitation, but the spatial distribution of the high excitation lines suggests that photons with energies close to 50eV are escaping the supernebula core in spite of 35 magnitudes of visual extinction.
title JWST View of the Supernebula in NGC 5253. II. Nebular Lines
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.09911