Sign on

SAO/NASA ADS Astronomy Abstract Service


· Find Similar Abstracts (with default settings below)
· Electronic Refereed Journal Article (HTML)
· Full Refereed Journal Article (PDF/Postscript)
· arXiv e-print (arXiv:1202.0547)
· References in the article
· Citations to the Article (4) (Citation History)
· Refereed Citations to the Article
· SIMBAD Objects (13)
· Also-Read Articles (Reads History)
·
· Translate This Page
Title:
Can Dust Emission be Used to Estimate the Mass of the Interstellar Medium in Galaxies---A Pilot Project with the Herschel Reference Survey
Authors:
Eales, Stephen; Smith, Matthew W. L.; Auld, Robbie; Baes, Maarten; Bendo, George J.; Bianchi, Simone; Boselli, Alessandro; Ciesla, Laure; Clements, David; Cooray, Asantha; Cortese, Luca; Davies, Jon; De Looze, Ilse; Galametz, Maud; Gear, Walter; Gentile, Gianfranco; Gomez, Haley; Fritz, Jacopo; Hughes, Tom; Madden, Suzanne; Magrini, Laura; Pohlen, Michael; Spinoglio, Luigi; Verstappen, Joris; Vlahakis, Catherine; Wilson, Christine D.
Affiliation:
AA(School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, Queens Buildings, The Parade, Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK), AB(School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, Queens Buildings, The Parade, Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK), AC(School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, Queens Buildings, The Parade, Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK), AD(Sterrenkundig Observatorium, Universiteit Gent, Krijgslaan 281 S9, B-9000 Gent, Belgium), AE(UK ALMA Regional Centre Node, Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK), AF(INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo E. Fermi 5, I-50125 Firenze, Italy), AG(Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseilles, UMR6110 CNRS, 38 rue F. Joliot-Curie, F-1338 Marseilles, France), AH(Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseilles, UMR6110 CNRS, 38 rue F. Joliot-Curie, F-1338 Marseilles, France), AI(Astrophysics Group, Imperial College, Blackett Lab, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2AZ, UK), AJ(Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA), AK(European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2 D-85748, Garching bei Munchen, Germany), AL(School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, Queens Buildings, The Parade, Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK), AM(Sterrenkundig Observatorium, Universiteit Gent, Krijgslaan 281 S9, B-9000 Gent, Belgium), AN(Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK), AO(School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, Queens Buildings, The Parade, Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK), AP(Sterrenkundig Observatorium, Universiteit Gent, Krijgslaan 281 S9, B-9000 Gent, Belgium; Astrophysical Institute, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium), AQ(School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, Queens Buildings, The Parade, Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK), AR(Sterrenkundig Observatorium, Universiteit Gent, Krijgslaan 281 S9, B-9000 Gent, Belgium), AS(Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China), AT(Laboratoire AIM, CEA/DSM-CNRS-Université Paris Diderot, Irfu/Service d'Astrophysique, F-91191 Gif sur Yvette, France), AU(INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo E. Fermi 5, I-50125 Firenze, Italy), AV(School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, Queens Buildings, The Parade, Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK), AW(Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario, Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Via Fosso del Cavaliere 100, I-00133 Roma, Italy), AX(Sterrenkundig Observatorium, Universiteit Gent, Krijgslaan 281 S9, B-9000 Gent, Belgium), AY(Joint ALMA Office, Alonso de Cordova 3107, Vitacura, and Departamento de Astronomia, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 36-D, Santiago, Chile), AZ(Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M1, Canada)
Publication:
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 761, Issue 2, article id. 168, 9 pp. (2012). (ApJ Homepage)
Publication Date:
12/2012
Origin:
IOP
Astronomy Keywords:
dust, extinction, galaxies: ISM, galaxies: spiral
DOI:
10.1088/0004-637X/761/2/168
Bibliographic Code:
2012ApJ...761..168E

Abstract

The standard method for estimating the mass of the interstellar medium (ISM) in a galaxy is to use the 21 cm line to trace the atomic gas and the CO 1-0 line to trace the molecular gas. In this paper, we investigate the alternative technique of using the continuum dust emission to estimate the mass of gas in all phases of the ISM. Using Herschel observations of 10 galaxies from the Herschel Reference Survey and the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey, we show that the emission detected by Herschel is mostly from dust that has a temperature and emissivity index similar to that of dust in the local ISM in our galaxy, with the temperature generally increasing toward the center of each galaxy. We calibrate the dust method using the CO and 21 cm observations to provide an independent estimate of the mass of hydrogen in each galaxy, solving the problem of the uncertain "X-factor" for the CO observations by minimizing the dispersion in the ratio of the masses estimated using the two methods. With the calibration for the dust method and the estimate of the X-factor produced in this way, the dispersion in the ratio of the two gas masses is 25%. The calibration we obtain for the dust method is similar to those obtained from Herschel observations of M31 and from Planck observations of the Milky Way. We discuss the practical problems in using this method.
Bibtex entry for this abstract   Preferred format for this abstract (see Preferences)

  New!

Find Similar Abstracts:

Use: Authors
Title
Keywords (in text query field)
Abstract Text
Return: Query Results Return    items starting with number
Query Form
Database: Astronomy
Physics
arXiv e-prints