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An extragalactic supernebula confined by gravity

Nature volume 423, pages 621–623 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

Little is known about the origins of globular clusters, which contain hundreds of thousands of stars in a volume only a few light years across. Radiation pressure and winds from luminous young stars should disperse the star-forming gas and disrupt the formation of the cluster. Globular clusters in our Galaxy cannot provide answers; they are billions of years old. Here we report the measurement of infrared hydrogen recombination lines from a young, forming super star cluster in the dwarf galaxy NGC5253. The lines arise in gas heated by a cluster of about one million stars, including 4,000–6,000 massive, hot ‘O’ stars1,2. It is so young that it is still enshrouded in gas and dust, hidden from optical view1,3,4,5. The gases within the cluster seem bound by gravity, which may explain why the windy and luminous O stars have not yet blown away those gases. Young clusters in ‘starbursting’ galaxies in the local and distant Universe may also be gravitationally confined and cloaked from view.

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Figure 1: Infrared–optical colour view of the young SSCs of NGC5253.
Figure 2: Echellogram and slit position for Brackett spectra of the supernebula.
Figure 3: Spectra of Br α and Br γ in NGC5253.

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Acknowledgements

We thank T. Glassman and E. Greisen for assistance with the data and M. Jura for discussions. This research is supported by the US National Science Foundation, the Israel Academy Center for Multi-Wavelength Astronomy, and the Laboratory of Astronomical Imaging at the University of Illinois.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, UCLA, Los Angeles, California, 90095-1562, USA

    J. L. Turner, L. P. Crosthwaite, J. E. Larkin, I. S. McLean & D. S. Meier

  2. School of Physics and Astronomy, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Israel

    S. C. Beck

  3. Astute Networks, 16868 Via Del Campo Court, Suite 200, San Diego, California, 92127, USA

    L. P. Crosthwaite

  4. Department of Astronomy, University of Illinois, Urbana, 1002 West Green Street, Illinois, 61801, USA

    D. S. Meier

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  1. J. L. Turner
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Correspondence to J. L. Turner.

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Turner, J., Beck, S., Crosthwaite, L. et al. An extragalactic supernebula confined by gravity. Nature 423, 621–623 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01689

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