Unveiling a hidden stellar bar in NGC1087: Kinematic and photometric signatures using MUSE/VLT, ALMA & JWST/NIRCam

ABSTRACT :
Stellar bars are one of the most visual structures of galaxies and yet not all barred galaxies have been identified in the nearby Universe. In this work, I used archival data from ALMA, JWST/NIRCam and MUSE to unveil a hidden optical bar in NGC 1087 (D=14 Mpc). This object shows a highly obscured nuclear region which prevents the distinction of a stellar bar; however, the stellar kinematics reveals a central distortion, which is simultaneously observed in the ionized gas kinematics and molecular gas CO(21). The 2mu IR emission from JWST reveals a 1 kpc size elongated structure stellar clusters at the same location of the kinematic distortion. After applying kinematic models including bar-like flows I found the oval distortion is compatible with a stellar bar with stream motions along the IR bar direction. This work shows the power of kinematics for identifying stellar bars.