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Arxiv: Young Stellar Objects in NGC 346: A JWST NIRCam/MIRI Imaging Survey Published: 4/25/2024 1:59:30 AM Updated: 4/25/2024 1:59:30 AM

Paper abstract: We present a JWST imaging survey with NIRCam and MIRI of NGC 346, thebrightest star-forming region in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). By combiningaperture and point spread function (PSF) photometry of eleven wavelength bandsacross these two instruments, we have detected more than 200,000 uniquesources. Using near-infrared (IR) color analysis, we observe various evolvedand young populations, including 196 young stellar objects (YSOs) and pre-mainsequence stars suitable for forthcoming spectroscopic studies. We expand uponthis work, creating mid-IR color-magnitude diagrams and determining color cutsto identify 833 reddened sources which are YSO candidates. We observe thatthese candidate sources are spatially associated with regions of dusty,filamentary nebulosity. Furthermore, we fit model YSO spectral energydistributions (SEDs) to a selection of sources with detections across all ofour MIRI bands. We classify with a high degree of confidence 23 YSOs in thissample and estimate their radii, bolometric temperatures, luminosities, andmasses. We detect YSOs approaching 1 solar mass, the lowest-mass extragalacticYSOs confirmed to date.