| Description |
We propose to detect dust associated with ram-pressure stripping through deep Herschel PACS/SPIRE imaging of a carefully chosen set of cluster galaxies that show strong signs of on-going stripping and intracluster star formation. Several lines of evidence, such as the existence of cold molecular gas and intracluster star formation in ram-pressure stripped tails, strongly point towards the existence of dust in these tails. Herschel is the only telescope that has the sensitivity to detect the emission from dust blown out into the intracluster medium (ICM). With our proposed observations we aim to: 1. quantify the temperature, mass, and lifetime of dust blown out into the ICM; 2. understand the role dust plays in the existence of molecular hydrogen in the ICM and intracluster star formation. Our program will carry out deep Herschel observations of five galaxies in high pressure environments with highly extended (virgul20-80 kpc) multi-phase gaseous tails. The Herschel observations will expand our already large multi-wavelength dataset and finally provide complete inventory of the gas and dust associated with ram-pressure stripping. This will provide a more complete picture of the impact of ram-pressure on galaxy evolution. |
