LMC N79

LMC N79 (or LHα 120-N79) is an emission nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The nebula is part of the catalog of H-alpha stars and nebulae by Karl G. Henize, published in 1956. It is composed of the smaller nebulae N79A to N79E^[1] From a CO survey it was however seen that the nebula is larger and contains N79-S, N79-W and N79-E.^[2] These nebulae were described by Henize with other names, with N79-S being the original N79 nebula, N79-W being N77 and N79-E being N83.^[1]

NGC/IC objects overlapping with N79

Henize	Ochsendorf+	NGC nebula	NGC star cluster	IC objects
N79	N79-S	NGC 1722	NGC 1727, NGC 1712	IC 2111
N77	N79-W		NGC 1698	IC 2105
N83	N79-E	NGC 1737	NGC 1743, NGC 1745, NGC 1748	IC 2114

LMC N79

Emission nebula
star-forming region
LMC N79 with the Spitzer Space Telescope. The nebula in the center is N79-S, containing a super star cluster
Observation data: J2000 epoch
Right ascension	04h 52m 00.0s
Declination	−69° 22′ 30″
Apparent dimensions (V)	1038" x 814"[1]
Constellation	Dorado
Designations	LHA 120-N 79, DEM L 10, DEM L 6
See also: Lists of nebulae

Super star cluster

central massive stars of the super star cluster with NIRCam. The most massive stars are labeled Y4-Y8

The central nebula N79-S contains the super star cluster (SSC) H72.97-69.39, also called HSO BMHERICC J072.9711-69.3911. This SSC was first suspected to exist in N79 in 2017 from Spitzer and Herschel observations.^[2] The SSC was observed with ALMA. This showed that the SSC is at the center of two colliding filaments. ALMA also showed bipolar outflows that are 65,000 years old and a HII region associated with the SSC.^[3] The stellar content was first studied with Gemini in 2021. At that time it was estimated that the SSC contains stars with a mass between 10,000 and 100,000 M_☉.^[4] Observations with JWST confirmed H72.97-69.39 as a SSC. Researchers discovered five massive stars in the center of the SSC with masses ranging between 20 and 40 M_☉. The youngest massive young stellar objects (YSOs) of H72.97-69.39 is called Y3 and is 10,000 years old. The central ionizing source is Y4, which is the most massive of the YSOs with a mass of around 40 M_☉. With MIRI the researchers identified 102 embedded YSOs in total.^[5][6] Yet to be published work with NIRCam detected 1550 young stars in N79.^[7]

Gallery

• 
  N79-S in mid-infrared with JWST. The bright object in the upper half contains the five most massive YSOs of the super star cluster.
• 
  N79-S in near-infrared with JWST. The super star cluster is on the right (which overlaps with the HII-region NGC 1722). On the left is the star cluster NGC 1727.

See also

• List of most massive stars
• NGC 2070 with central condensation R136 is another SSC in the Large Magellanic Cloud

Milky Way SSCs:

• Westerlund 1
• NGC 3603