Search

Investigating Protostellar Accretion (IPA) is a JWST Cycle 1 GO program that uses NIRSpec integral field units and MIRI Medium Resolution Spectrograph to obtain 2.9–28 μ m spectral cubes of young, deeply embedded protostars with luminosities of 0.2–10,000 L _⊙ and central masses of 0.15–12 M _⊙ . In this Letter, we report the discovery of a highly collimated atomic jet from the Class 0 protostar IRAS 16253−2429, the lowest-luminosity source ( L _bol = 0.2 L _⊙ ) in the IPA program. The collimated jet is detected in multiple [Fe ii ] lines and [Ne ii ], [Ni ii ], and H i lines but not in molecular emission. The atomic jet has a velocity of about 169 ± 15 km s ^−1 , after correcting for inclination. The width of the jet increases with distance from the central protostar from 23 to 60 au, corresponding to an opening angle of 2.°6 ± 0.°5. By comparing the measured flux ratios of various fine-structure lines to those predicted by simple shock models, we derive a shock speed of 54 km s ^−1 and a preshock density of 2.0 × 10 ^3 cm ^−3 at the base of the jet. From these quantities and using a suite of jet models and extinction laws, we compute a mass-loss rate between 0.4 and 1.1 ×10 ^−10 M _⊙ yr ^−1 . The low mass-loss rate is consistent with simultaneous measurements of low mass accretion rate (2.4 ± 0.8 × 10 ^−9 M _⊙ yr ^−1 ) for IRAS 16253−2429 from JWST observations, indicating that the protostar is in a quiescent accretion phase. Our results demonstrate that very low-mass protostars can drive highly collimated, atomic jets, even during the quiescent phase.

Previous Hubble Space Telescope observations of the star-forming cluster NGC 346 in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) revealed a large population of pre-main-sequence (PMS) candidates, characterized by H α excess emission in their photometry. However, without access to spectroscopy, the nature of these objects remained unclear. Using the NIRSpec instrument on board JWST, we studied a sample of these stars, with masses in the range of ∼0.9−1.8 M _⊙ , effective temperatures ( T _eff ) in the range of 4500−8000 K, and PMS ages between ∼0.1 and 30 Myr. Here, we present the first spectra of solar-mass PMS stars in the metal-poor SMC ( Z = 1/8 Z _⊙ ) and discuss the physical properties of 10 representative sources with good signal-to-noise ratio. The observations indicate that even the oldest of these PMS candidates are still accreting gas with typical rates of ∼10 ^−8 M _⊙ yr ^−1 for stars older than ∼10 Myr, confirming their PMS nature. The spectra also reveal near-infrared excess and molecular hydrogen excitation lines consistent with the presence of disks around these stars. These findings suggest that in a low-metallicity environment, circumstellar disks can live longer than previously thought.

In this work, we present spectra of 11 young stellar objects (YSOs) taken with the Mid-Infrared Instrument / Medium Resolution Spectroscopy (MRS) instrument on board the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The YSOs are located in the N79 region of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), an active star-forming region with hundreds of Spitzer- and Herschel-identified YSOs and host to super star cluster (SSC) candidate H72.97-69.39. The three giant molecular clouds in N79 (East, West, and South) have varying star formation rates and stellar populations. MRS follow-up observations of four Spitzer-identified YSOs in N79 East, West, and South have revealed that what seemed to be a single, massive YSO is actually a cluster of YSOs. We discuss the emission and absorption lines of six YSOs that have complete or almost-complete spectral coverage from 4.9–27.9 μ m. YSO Y3, located in N79 East, is the youngest source in this study and likely to be less than 10,000 yr old, as inferred from the prominent CH _4 , NH _3 , CH _3 OH, CH _3 OCHO, and CO _2 ice absorption features. The most luminous source is the central ionizing YSO of SSC H72.97-69.39, Y4, which has dozens of fine-structure and H _2 emission lines. Unlike the other YSOs in this work, Y4 has no polyaromatic hydrocarbon emission lines, due to the intense ionizing radiation destroying these large carbon-chain molecules. The mass accretion rates based on the H i (7-6) line luminosities of YSOs Y1, Y2, Y4, and Y9 range between 1.22 × 10 ^−4 –1.89 × 10 ^−2 M _⊙ yr ^−1 . For the first time in the mid-infrared, we are able to resolve individual high-mass protostars forming in small clusters in an extragalactic environment like the LMC.

Investigating Protostellar Accretion is a Cycle 1 JWST program using the NIRSpec+MIRI integral field units to obtain 2.9–28 μ m spectral cubes of five young protostars with luminosities of 0.2–10,000 L _⊙ in their primary accretion phase. This paper introduces the NIRSpec 2.9–5.3 μ m data of the inner 840–9000 au with spatial resolutions from 28 to 300 au. The spectra show rising continuum emission; deep ice absorption; emission from H _2 , H i , and [Fe ii ]; and the CO fundamental series in emission and absorption. Maps of the continuum emission show scattered light cavities for all five protostars. In the cavities, collimated jets are detected in [Fe ii ] for the four

We present an imaging survey of the Spitzer I star-forming region in NGC 6822 conducted with the NIRCam and MIRI instruments on board JWST. Located at a distance of 490 kpc, NGC 6822 is the nearest non-interacting low-metallicity (∼0.2 Z _⊙ ) dwarf galaxy. It hosts some of the brightest known H ii regions in the local universe, including recently discovered sites of highly embedded active star formation. Of these, Spitzer I is the youngest and most active, and houses 90 color-selected candidate young stellar objects (YSOs) identified from Spitzer Space Telescope observations. We revisit the YSO population of Spitzer I with these new JWST observations. By analyzing color–magnitude diagrams constructed with NIRCam and MIRI data, we establish color selection criteria and construct spectral energy distributions to identify candidate YSOs and characterize the full population of young stars, from the most embedded phase to the more evolved stages. In this way, we have identified 140 YSOs in Spitzer I. Comparing to previous Spitzer studies of the NGC 6822 YSO population, we find that the YSOs we identify are fainter and less massive, indicating that the improved resolution of JWST allows us to resolve previously blended sources into multiple objects.

We present a JWST imaging survey with NIRCam and MIRI of NGC 346, the brightest star-forming region in the Small Magellanic Cloud. By combining aperture and point-spread function photometry of 11 wavelength bands across these two instruments, we have detected more than 200,000 unique sources. Using a near-infrared color analysis, we observe various evolved and young populations, including 196 young stellar objects (YSOs) and pre-main-sequence stars suitable for forthcoming spectroscopic studies. We expand upon this work, creating mid-infrared color–magnitude diagrams and determining color cuts to identify 833 reddened sources which are YSO candidates. We observe that these candidate sources are spatially associated with regions of dusty, filamentary nebulosity. Furthermore, we fit model YSO spectral energy distributions to a selection of sources with detections across all of our MIRI bands. We classify with a high degree of confidence 23 YSOs in this sample and estimate their radii, bolometric temperatures, luminosities, and masses. We detect YSOs approaching 1 M _⊙ , the lowest-mass extragalactic YSOs confirmed to date.

We present 102 embedded young stellar object (YSO) candidates associated with the H72.97-69.39 super star cluster (SSC) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). With the use of the James Webb Space Telescope Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) imaging mode, we utilize an F770W – F1000W versus F1000W color–magnitude diagram to select 70 YSO candidates. An additional 27 YSO candidates are selected based on model fitting using the four MIRI imaging filters employed for this study (F770W, F1000W, F1500W, and F2100W). The central region of H72.97-69.39 is saturated in MIRI imaging, however it is covered by observations made with the Medium Resolution Spectrometer (MRS), leading to the identification of five additional massive YSOs. The total star formation rate inferred based on the 102 YSO candidates is 0.02 M _⊙ yr ^−1 , similar to other high-mass star-forming regions in the LMC which have undergone several generations of starburst events. Due to its young age, however, H72.97-69.39's stellar production rate is expected to increase. The central five YSOs identified with MRS have masses ranging from 21.1 to 40.3 M _⊙ and total luminosity over 10 ^6 L _⊙ , making H72.97-69.39 a very compact and luminous star-forming region similar to other known SSCs. We theorize that the central five massive YSOs were formed via filamentary collision, while other YSO candidates of varying masses were triggered by wind, radiation, and expanding H ii shells based on their spatial distribution.

We present an 870 μ m continuum survey of 300 protostars from the Herschel Orion Protostar Survey using the Atacama Compact Array (ACA). These data measure protostellar flux densities on envelope scales ≤8000 au (20″) and resolve the structure of envelopes with 1600 au (4″) resolution, a factor of 3–5 improvement in angular resolution over existing single-dish 870 μ m observations. We compare the ACA observations to Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array 12 m array observations at 870 μ m with ∼0.″1 (40 au) resolution. Using the 12 m data to measure the fluxes from disks and the ACA data within 2500 au to measure the combined disk plus envelope fluxes, we calculate the 12 m/ACA 870 μ m flux ratios. Our sample shows a clear evolution in this ratio. Class 0 protostars are mostly envelope-dominated with ratios

We present a Spitzer/Herschel focused survey of the Aquila molecular clouds ( d ∼ 436 pc) as part of the eHOPS (extension of the Herschel orion protostar survey, or HOPS, Out to 500 ParSecs) census of nearby protostars. For every source detected in the Herschel/PACS bands, the eHOPS-Aquila catalog contains 1–850 μ m SEDs assembled from the Two Micron All Sky Survey, Spitzer, Herschel, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, and James Clerk Maxwell Telescope/SCUBA-2 data. Using a newly developed set of criteria, we classify objects by their SEDs as protostars, pre-main-sequence stars with disks, and galaxies. A total of 172 protostars are found in Aquila, tightly concentrated in the molecular filaments that thread the clouds. Of these, 71 (42%) are Class 0 protostars, 54 (31%) are Class I protostars, 43 (25%) are flat-spectrum protostars, and four (2%) are Class II sources. Ten of the Class 0 protostars are young PACS bright red sources similar to those discovered in Orion. We compare the SEDs to a grid of radiative transfer models to constrain the luminosities, envelope densities, and envelope masses of the protostars. A comparison of the eHOPS-Aquila to the HOPS protostars in Orion finds that the protostellar luminosity functions in the two star-forming regions are statistically indistinguishable, the bolometric temperatures/envelope masses of eHOPS-Aquila protostars are shifted to cooler temperatures/higher masses, and the eHOPS-Aquila protostars do not show the decline in luminosity with evolution found in Orion. We briefly discuss whether these differences are due to biases between the samples, diverging star formation histories, or the influence of environment on protostellar evolution.