Unveiling the new generation of stars in NGC 604 with Gemini-NIRI

Abstract

We present a near infrared study focused on the detection and characterization of the youngest stellar component of the NGC 604 giant star-forming region, in the Triangulum galaxy (M 33). By means of color-color diagrams derived from the photometry of JHKs images taken with Gemini-NIRI, we have found 68 candidate massive young stellar objects. The spatial distribution of these sources matches the areas where previous studies suggested that star formation might be taking place, and the high spatial resolution of our deep NIRI imaging allows to pinpoint the star-forming knots. An analysis of the fraction of objects that show infrared excess suggests that the star formation is still active, supporting the presence of a second generation of stars being born, although the evidence for or against sequential star formation does not seem to be conclusive.

Article accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal. 19 pages, 12 figures, 5 tables

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• AGB stars as tracers of metallicity and mean age across M33
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Cited by in corpus (7)

• Ongoing Massive Star Formation in NGC 604
• ALMA Observations of Giant Molecular Clouds in M33. II. Triggered High-mass Star Formation by Multiple Gas Colliding Events at the NGC 604 Complex
• Probing the nature of the pre-merging system Hickson Compact Group 31 through IFU data
• Massive young stellar objects in the Local Group spiral galaxy M33 identified using machine learning
• Turbulence in compact to giant H II regions
• The First Candidate Colliding-Wind Binary in M33
• SIGNALS of Giant HII Regions: A Spatially Resolved Analysis of NGC 604