James Webb Space Telescope Feed Post

Arxiv: The JWST-NIRCam View of Sagittarius C. I. Massive Star Formation and Protostellar Outflows Published: 10/11/2024 11:59:21 PM Updated: 10/11/2024 11:59:21 PM

Paper abstract: We present James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)-NIRCam observations of themassive star-forming molecular cloud Sagittarius C (Sgr C) in the CentralMolecular Zone (CMZ). In conjunction with ancillary mid-IR and far-IR data, wecharacterize the two most massive protostars in Sgr C via spectral energydistribution (SED) fitting, estimating that they each have current masses ofm_* ~ 20\:M_\odot and surrounding envelope masses of ~ 100\:M_\odot.We report a census of lower-mass protostars in Sgr C via a search for infraredcounterparts to mm continuum dust cores found with ALMA. We identify 88molecular hydrogen outflow knot candidates originating from outflows fromprotostars in Sgr C, the first such unambiguous detections in the infrared inthe CMZ. About a quarter of these are associated with flows from the twomassive protostars in Sgr C; these extend for over 1 pc and are associated withoutflows detected in ALMA SiO line data. An additional ~ 40 featureslikely trace shocks in outflows powered by lower-mass protostars throughout thecloud. We report the discovery of a new star-forming region hosting twoprominent bow shocks and several other line-emitting features driven by atleast two protostars. We infer that one of these is forming a high-mass stargiven an SED-derived mass of m_* ~ 9\:M_\odot and associated massive(~ 90\:M_\odot) mm core and water maser. Finally, we identify a populationof miscellaneous Molecular Hydrogen Objects (MHOs) that do not appear to beassociated with protostellar outflows.