| Description |
Early-type galaxies are known to harbor a complex multi-phase interstellar medium. Their dust content, however, remains mysterious. Deep optical imaging surveys have shown that a large number of early-type galaxies possess dust features in a variety of morphological forms. Dust has also been detected in emission in many early-type galaxies using IRAS, ISO and Spitzer observations. Strangely, the dust masses derived from far-infrared observations are typically an order of magnitude larger than those estimated using optical extinction features. This inconsistency in the dust energy balance could suggest the presence of a diffusely distributed dust component that is hard to notice in extinction.We propose PACS and SPIRE imaging of a sample of 11 carefully selected, nearby early-type galaxies with regular and well-defined dust lanes. We will construct panchromatic radiative transfer models for each of these galaxies, based on multi-wavelength optical/NIR images and FIR/submm images. This will enable us to systematically investigate the dust energy balance in dust-lane early-type galaxies, to investigate the amount and the spatial distribution of the dust, to determine the optical properties of the dust, and to test the existence of a diffuse dust component. |
| Keywords |
Herschel Space Observatory data, ESA Herschel mission dataset, far-infrared astronomy observations, submillimeter astronomy data, infrared space telescope observations, PACS photometer data, PACS spectrometer data, SPIRE photometer data, SPIRE Fourier transform spectrometer data, HIFI heterodyne spectroscopy data, far-infrared spectroscopy dataset, submillimeter spectral line observations, cold universe observations dataset, star formation infrared data, molecular cloud far-infrared observations, interstellar medium spectroscopy data, protoplanetary disk infrared observations, galaxy evolution far-infrared data, dust emission submillimeter observations, cosmic infrared background measurements, extragalactic infrared survey data, calibrated level 2 data products, FITS files astronomy, spectral cubes far-infrared, flux-calibrated maps, continuum photometry data, spectral energy distribution measurements, ESA Herschel Science Archive data |
