| Description |
While much of what we have gleaned of the details of dust and gas properties and the processes of dust recycling and heating and cooling in galaxies has been limited to Galactic studies, with Herschel we will be able to explore these issues in low metallicity dwarf galaxies which are known by now to exhibit dust and gas properties different from more metal-rich galaxies. Because these objects are relatively nearby, it is possible to relate the observed variations in the SEDs to the actual physical phenomena occuring within the ISM of the galaxy, allowing the construction of a rich interpretative framework for unresolved, more distant galaxies in the early universe.Using the SPIRE and PACS instruments on Herschel, we propose to map the dust and gas in a 51 dwarf galaxies, sampling a broad metallicity range of 1/50 to 1/3 solar. These data, in conjunction with other ancillary data, will be used to construct the emission spectrum of the dust plus that of the gas in the most important cooling lines. The combination of these instruments onboard Herschel will provide the first opportunity to study the dust and gas in extremely low metallicity environments that have not yet experienced repeated recycling through the ISM. The interpretation of this data will open the door to comprehending primordial ISM conditions and star formation in the young universe. |
| 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 |
