Fakultät für Physik und Astronomie
STEPHEN PHILLIPS hostreviews.co.uk / UNSPLASH

Characterising superbubble populations and their energetics in nearby galaxies using JWST and ALMA

Elizabeth Watkins , ARI

Bubbles allow us to chart the interaction between stellar feedback, the interstellar medium and the larger galactic flows needed to regulate star formation processes globally. In this presentation, I will discuss how JWST and ALMA are providing novel constraints on bubble populations and stellar feedback physics, and their impact on molecular clouds. The first JWST observations of nearby galaxies unveiled a rich population of bubbles, therefore using PHANGS-JWST observations, I will present the first catalogue of these bubbles in NGC628 at high resolution (12pc) and statistically evaluate their characteristics. The catalogue contains 1694 bubbles with radii between 6-550pc. Of these, 31% contain at least one smaller bubble at their edge, indicating that previous generations of star formation have a local impact on where new stars form. To quantify the feedback energetics on the star-forming gas, I will also present the largest molecular superbubble catalogue found to date within nearby galaxies using 12CO (2-1) observations. Using 18 PHANGS-ALMA galaxies at resolutions of ~50-100pc, I catalogue 325 superbubbles with radii between 30-330pc and expansion velocities of ~10km/s. By focusing on a subset of these that have clear superbubble signatures (unbroken shells etc.), I leverage the kinematic information available with 12CO to constrain the feedback processes. I find most are supernova driven, and rather than dispersing, molecular clouds are swept-up into a shell that grows over time. Therefore these superbubbles can potentially form stars in their shells, matching what I observe in the higher resolution JWST bubble catalogue.

ARI Institute Colloquium
25 May 2023, 11:15
ARI, Moenchhofstrasse 12-14, Seminarraum 1.OG

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