GOALS-JWST: Pulling Back the Curtain on the AGN and Star Formation in VV 114
J. Rich
1
, S. Aalto
2
, A. S. Evans
3
,
4
, V. Charmandaris
5
,
6
,
7
, G. C. Privon
3
,
8
, T. Lai
9
, H. Inami
10
, S. Linden
11
,
L. Armus
9
, T. Diaz-Santos
6
,
7
, P. Appleton
9
, L. Barcos-Muñoz
4
, T. Böker
12
, K. L. Larson
13
, D. R. Law
14
,
M. A. Malkan
15
, A. M. Medling
16
,
17
, Y. Song
3
,
4
,V.U
18
, P. van der Werf
19
, T. Bohn
10
, M. J. I. Brown
20
,
L. Finnerty
15
, C. Hayward
21
, J. Howell
9
, K. Iwasawa
22
,
23
, F. Kemper
23
,
24
,
25
, J. Marshall
26
, J. M. Mazzarella
9
,
J. McKinney
27
, F. Muller-Sanchez
28
, E. J. Murphy
29
, D. Sanders
30
, B. T. Soifer
31
, S. Stierwalt
32
, and J. Surace
9
1
The Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science, 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA, 91101, USA
2
Department of Space, Earth and Environment, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden
3
National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 520 Edgemont Rd, Charlottesville, VA, 22903, USA
4
Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, 530 McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA, 22903, USA
5
Department of Physics, University of Crete, Heraklion, 71003, Greece
6
Institute of Astrophysics, Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas
(
FORTH
)
, Heraklion, 70013, Greece
7
School of Sciences, European University Cyprus, Diogenes street, Engomi, 1516 Nicosia, Cyprus
8
Department of Astronomy, University of Florida, P.O. Box 112055, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA
9
IPAC, California Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA
10
Hiroshima Astrophysical Science Center, Hiroshima University, 1-3-1 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima 739-8526, Japan
11
Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA
12
European Space Agency, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA
13
AURA for the European Space Agency
(
ESA
)
, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA
14
Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA
15
Department of Physics & Astronomy, 430 Portola Plaza, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA
16
Department of Physics & Astronomy and Ritter Astrophysical Research Center, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, 43606, USA
17
ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions
(
ASTRO 3D
)
; Australia
18
Department of Physics and Astronomy, 4129 Frederick Reines Hall, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92697, USA
19
Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
20
School of Physics and Astronomy, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia
21
Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute, 162 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, 10010, USA
22
Institut de Ciències del Cosmos
(
ICCUB
)
, Universitat de Barcelona
(
IEEC-UB
)
, Martí i Franquès, 1, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain
23
ICREA, Pg. Lluís Companys 23, E-08010 Barcelona, Spain
24
Institut de Ciencies de l
’
Espai
(
ICE, CSIC
)
, Can Magrans, s
/
n, E-08193 Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain
25
Institut d
’
Estudis Espacials de Catalunya
(
IEEC
)
, E-08034 Barcelona, Spain
26
Glendale Community College, 1500 N. Verdugo Rd., Glendale, CA, 91208, USA
27
Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA
28
Department of Physics and Materials Science, The University of Memphis, 3720 Alumni Avenue, Memphis, TN, 38152, USA
29
National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA, 22903, USA
30
Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA
31
Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA, 91125, USA
32
Physics Department, 1600 Campus Road, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA, 90041, USA
Received 2022 November 22; revised 2022 December 20; accepted 2023 January 4; published 2023 February 22
Abstract
We present results from the James Webb Space Telescope Director
’
s Discretionary Time Early Release Science
program 1328 targeting the nearby, luminous infrared galaxy, VV 114. We use the MIRI and NIRSpec instruments
to obtain integral-
fi
eld spectroscopy of the heavily obscured eastern nucleus
(
V114E
)
and surrounding regions. The
spatially resolved, high-resolution spectra reveal the physical conditions in the gas and dust over a projected area of
2
–
3 kpc that includes the two brightest IR sources, the NE and SW cores. Our observations show for the
fi
rst time
spectroscopic evidence that the SW core hosts an active galactic nucleus as evidenced by its very low 6.2
μ
m and
3.3
μ
m polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon equivalent widths
(
0.12 and 0.017
μ
m, respectively
)
and mid- and near-
IR colors. Our observations of the NE core show signs of deeply embedded star formation including absorption
features due to aliphatic hydrocarbons, large quantities of amorphous silicates, as well as HCN due to cool gas
along the line of sight. We detect elevated
[
Fe
II
]
/
Pf
α
consistent with extended shocks coincident with enhanced
emission from warm H
2
, far from the IR-bright cores and clumps. We also identify broadening and multiple
kinematic components in both H
2
and
fi
ne structure lines caused by out
fl
ows and previously identi
fi
ed tidal
features.
Uni
fi
ed Astronomy Thesaurus concepts:
Interacting galaxies
(
802
)
;
Galaxy nuclei
(
609
)
;
Luminous IR galaxies
(
946
)
;
Active galactic nuclei
(
16
)
Supporting material:
machine-readable table
1. Introduction
VV 114
(
Arp236, IC1623
)
is an interacting system under-
going vigorous starburst activity. With an IR luminosity of
L
IR
∼
4.5
×
10
11
L
e
, and a distance of 80 Mpc, it is one of the
The Astrophysical Journal Letters,
944:L50
(
10pp
)
, 2023 February 20
https:
//
doi.org
/
10.3847
/
2041-8213
/
acb2b8
© 2023. The Author
(
s
)
. Published by the American Astronomical Society.
Original content from this work may be used under the terms
of the
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence
. Any further
distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author
(
s
)
and the title
of the work, journal citation and DOI.
1