JWST MIRI and NIRCam observations of NGC 891 and its circumgalactic medium

¹ Sterrenkundig Observatorium, Universiteit Gent, Krijgslaan 281-S9, 9000 Gent, Belgium
² Dept. Fisica Teorica y del Cosmos, 18071 Granada, Spain
³ Instituto Universitario Carlos I de Fisica Teorica y Computacional, Universidad de Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain
⁴ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071, USA
⁵ Sub-department of Astrophysics, Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH, UK
⁶ INAF – Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo E. Fermi 5, 50125 Firenze, Italy
⁷ Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications & Remote Sensing, National Observatory of Athens, P. Penteli, 15236 Athens, Greece
⁸ Department of Astronomy and Joint Space-Science Institute, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
⁹ Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
¹⁰ INAF – Istituto di Radioastronomia, Via Piero Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
¹¹ AURA for the European Space Agency, STScI, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
¹² Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen, PO Box 800 9700AV Groningen, The Netherlands
¹³ Instituto de Radioastronomía y Astrofísica, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Morelia, Michoacán 58089, Mexico
¹⁴ Université Paris-Saclay, Université Paris Cité, CEA, CNRS, AIM, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
¹⁵ Universität Heidelberg, Zentrum für Astronomie, Institut für Theoretische Astrophysik, Albert-Ueberle-Straße 2, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
¹⁶ Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica, Astronomy-Mathematics Building, No. 1, Section 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10617, Taiwan
¹⁷ Theoretical Astrophysics, Department of Earth and Space Science, Osaka University, 1-1 Machikaneyama, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-0043, Japan
¹⁸ Theoretical Joint Research (TJR), Graduate School of Science, Osaka University, 1-1 Machikaneyama, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-0043, Japan
¹⁹ Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, cityTucson AZ 85721, USA
²⁰ Kavli-IPMU (WPI), University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8583, Japan
²¹ Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 4505 S. Maryland Pkwy, Las Vegas, NV 89154-4002, USA
²² Universität Heidelberg, Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Wissenschaftliches Rechnen, Im Neuenheimer Feld 205, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
²³ Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
²⁴ School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, North Haugh, St Andrews KY16 9SS, UK
²⁵ Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, Department of Physics, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
²⁶ Department of Physics and Astronomy, N283 ESC, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA
²⁷ Physics and Astronomy Department, University of Pittsburgh, 3941 O’Hara St, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
²⁸ Department of Physics & Astronomy, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, UK
²⁹ Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA
³⁰ Ritter Astrophysical Research Center, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH 43606, USA
³¹ School of Physics & Astronomy, Cardiff University, The Parade, Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK
³² I. Physikalisches Institut, Universiät zu Köln, Zülpicher Str. 77, 50937 Köln, Germany
³³ Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany

Received: 7 June 2024
Accepted: 13 August 2024

Abstract

We present new JWST observations of the nearby, prototypical edge-on, spiral galaxy NGC 891. The northern half of the disk was observed with NIRCam in its F150W and F277W filters. Absorption is clearly visible in the mid-plane of the F150W image, along with vertical dusty plumes that closely resemble the ones seen in the optical. A ∼10 × 3 kpc² area of the lower circumgalactic medium (CGM) was mapped with MIRI F770W at 12 pc scales. Thanks to the sensitivity and resolution of JWST, we detect dust emission out to ∼4 kpc from the disk, in the form of filaments, arcs, and super-bubbles. Some of these filaments can be traced back to regions with recent star formation activity, suggesting that feedback-driven galactic winds play an important role in regulating baryonic cycling. The presence of dust at these altitudes raises questions about the transport mechanisms at play and suggests that small dust grains are able to survive for several tens of million years after having been ejected by galactic winds in the disk-halo interface. We lay out several scenarios that could explain this emission: dust grains may be shielded in the outer layers of cool dense clouds expelled from the galaxy disk, and/or the emission comes from the mixing layers around these cool clumps where material from the hot gas is able to cool down and mix with these cool cloudlets. This first set of data and upcoming spectroscopy will be very helpful to understand the survival of dust grains in energetic environments, and their contribution to recycling baryonic material in the mid-plane of galaxies.