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J. P. Naiman, J. L. Turner, C.-W. Tsai (UCLA), S. C. Beck (Tel Aviv), P. T. P. Ho (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA)
We have mapped the starburst galaxy NGC 660 at 100mas resolution at K band (1.3 cm) with the NRAO Very Large Array. A peculiar galaxy at a distance of 13 Mpc, NGC~660 contains concentrated central star formation of power ~ 2 x 1010~ Lsun. Our 1.3 cm continuum image reveals a bright, compact source of less than 10 pc extent with a rising spectral index. We infer that this is optically thick free-free emission from a super star cluster nebula. The nebula is less than 10 pc in size, comparable in luminosity to the ``supernebula" in the dwarf galaxy, NGC 5253. We estimate that there are a few thousand O stars contained in this single young cluster. There are a number of other weaker continuum sources, either slightly smaller or more evolved clusters of similar size within the central 300 parsecs of the galaxy.
This work is supported in part by the National Science Foundation.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.