Sequential Star-Formation and the Near-Infrared Stellar Populations within N159

@misc{habel2026sequential,
  title = {{Sequential Star-Formation and the Near-Infrared Stellar Populations within N159}},
  author = {Nolan Habel and E. Sabbi and Peter Zeidler and Tuila Ziliotto and Laurie Chu Margaret Meixner and Guido De Marchi and O. C. Jones and Alec S. Hirschauer and Beena Meena and Jeroen Jaspers and Laura Lenkic and Remy Indebetouw and Karl D. Gordon and Burcu Gunay and Suzanne Madden and James Muzerolle Page and Omnarayani Nayak and Antonella Nota and Theo Oneill and Massimo Robberto and Tony Wong and Petia Yanchulova Mercia-Jones},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.27126},
  eprint = {2609.27126},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.27126},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}

TY  - UNPB
TI  - Sequential Star-Formation and the Near-Infrared Stellar Populations within N159
AU  - Nolan Habel
AU  - E. Sabbi
AU  - Peter Zeidler
AU  - Tuila Ziliotto
AU  - Laurie Chu Margaret Meixner
AU  - Guido De Marchi
AU  - O. C. Jones
AU  - Alec S. Hirschauer
AU  - Beena Meena
AU  - Jeroen Jaspers
AU  - Laura Lenkic
AU  - Remy Indebetouw
AU  - Karl D. Gordon
AU  - Burcu Gunay
AU  - Suzanne Madden
AU  - James Muzerolle Page
AU  - Omnarayani Nayak
AU  - Antonella Nota
AU  - Theo Oneill
AU  - Massimo Robberto
AU  - Tony Wong
AU  - Petia Yanchulova Mercia-Jones
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/22
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.27126
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.27126
AB  - We present the first results from a JWST/NIRCam study of the star-forming region N159, one of the richest H II complexes in the Large Magellanic Cloud. This region stretches over ∼130 pc, and exemplifies large-scale sequential star formation. We present photometric results of >300,000 point sources combining data from ten near-infrared JWST filters spanning 1-4.7 microns. We detect sources as faint as ∼27 magnitudes at F115W, corresponding to stellar masses reaching below ∼0.1 M_⊙. By constructing several color-magnitude and color-color diagrams, we separate young stars from main-sequence and older stars within N159, finding evidence for stellar populations younger than 0.5 Myr. Of the young population, we identify accreting, pre-main sequence stars from their Paschen-α (Paα) excess and a population of sources bearing strong infrared (IR) excess, representing candidate young stellar objects (YSOs). Within this population, we identify a subpopulation of sources with H_2O ice absorption. The IR-excess-bearing YSO candidates correlate spatially with dust filaments and molecular gas demonstrating their embedded state. The distribution of stellar and candidate YSO populations across N159 reveal more evolved star-forming populations in the N159E region and newer star formation in the N159W region, supporting the sequential star formation scenario for this region.
ER  -