James Webb Space Telescope Feed Post

New insights in the bubble wall of NGC 3324: intertwined sub-structures and a bipolar morphology uncovered by JWST

The panel shows a three-color composite map (Herschel 70 µm (in red), Spitzer 8.0 µm (in green), and Spitzer 3.6 µm (in blue) images in linear scale). The area of the image is ~8.'5 × 9.'8 (central coordinates: a2000 = 10h36m43.s25; d2000 = -58?37'12.''82). All the symbols are the same as presented in Figure 1a. The dust continuum clumps highlighted by stars are also labeled. Abstract: We report the discovery of intertwined/entangled sub-structures towards the bubble wall of NGC 3324 below a physical scale of 4500 AU, which is the sharp edge/ionization front/elongated structure traced at the interface between the HII region and the molecular cloud. The sharp edge appears wavy in the Spitzer 3.6-8.0 µm images (resolution ~2''). Star formation signatures have mostly been traced on one side of the ionization front, which lies on the molecular cloud's boundary. The James Webb Space Telescope's (JWST) near- and mid-infrared images (resolution ~0.07''-0.7'') are employed to resolve the sharp edge, which has a curvature facing the exciting O-type stars. The elongated structures are associated with the 3.3 µm polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission, the 4.05 µm ionized emission, and the 4.693 µm H2 emission. However, the PAH-emitting structures are depicted between the other two. The H2 emission reveals numerous intertwined sub-structures which are not prominently traced in the 3.3 µm PAH emission. The separation between two sub-structures in the H2 emission is ~1.1'' or 2420 AU. The intertwined sub-structures are traced in the spatial areas associated with the neutral to H2 transition zone, suggesting the origin of these structures by ``thin-shell' instability. Furthermore, an arc-like feature traced in the Spitzer 3.6-8.0 µm images is investigated as a bipolar HII region (extent ~0.35 pc) at Td ~25-28~K using the JWST images. A massive star candidate VPHAS-OB1 #03518 seems to be responsible for the bipolar HII region.