Mapping the interstellar medium in galaxies with Herschel/SPIRE
S.A. Eales, M.W.L. Smith, C.D. Wilson, G.J. Bendo, L. Cortese, M., Pohlen, A. Boselli, H.L. Gomez, R. Auld, M. Baes, M.J. Barlow, J.J. Bock, M., Bradford, V. Buat, N. Castro-Rodriguez, P. Chanial, S. Charlot, L. Ciesla,, D.L. Clements, A. Cooray, D. Cormier, J.I. Davies, E. Dwek
TL;DR
This paper demonstrates that using Herschel/SPIRE continuum dust emission is a promising alternative to traditional gas line observations for mapping the interstellar medium in galaxies, especially beyond the nearby universe.
Contribution
It introduces and validates a dust continuum emission method for mapping the interstellar medium, offering a viable alternative to gas line observations.
Findings
Dust continuum emission correlates well with gas-based methods.
The dispersion in star-formation rate relationships is similar for both methods.
Continuum emission mapping extends to more distant galaxies.
Abstract
The standard method of mapping the interstellar medium in a galaxy, by observing the molecular gas in the CO 1-0 line and the atomic gas in the 21-cm line, is largely limited with current telescopes to galaxies in the nearby universe. In this letter, we use SPIRE observations of the galaxies M99 and M100 to explore the alternative approach of mapping the interstellar medium using the continuum emission from the dust. We have compared the methods by measuring the relationship between the star-formation rate and the surface density of gas in the galaxies. We find the two methods give relationships with a similar dispersion, confirming that observing the continuum emission from the dust is a promising method of mapping the interstellar medium in galaxies.
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