Probing the interstellar medium of NGC1569 with Herschel

TL;DR

This study uses Herschel and multiwavelength data to analyze the interstellar medium of NGC1569, revealing how star formation impacts dust and gas distribution, especially around super star clusters and cavities.

Contribution

It provides a detailed multi-scale analysis of dust and gas properties in NGC1569, highlighting the effects of intense star formation on the interstellar medium.

Findings

Dust mass is higher in the galaxy's periphery.

The cavity contains only 12% of the central starburst's dust mass.

Gas-to-dust ratio varies across the galaxy.

Abstract

NGC1569 has some of the most vigorous star formation among nearby galaxies. It hosts two super star clusters (SSCs) and has a higher star formation rate (SFR) per unit area than other starburst dwarf galaxies. Extended emission beyond the galaxy's optical body is observed in warm and hot ionised and atomic hydrogen gas; a cavity surrounds the SSCs. We aim to understand the impact of the massive star formation on the surrounding interstellar medium in NGC1569 through a study of its stellar and dust properties. We use Herschel and ancillary multiwavelength observations, from the ultraviolet to the submillimeter regime, to construct its spectral energy distribution, which we model with magphys on ~300pc scales at the SPIRE250 {\mu}m resolution. The multiwavelength morphology shows low levels of dust emission in the cavity, and a concentration of several dust knots in its periphery. The extended emission seen in the ionised and neutral hydrogen observations is also present in the far-infrared emission. The dust mass is higher in the periphery of the cavity, driven by ongoing star formation and dust emission knots. The SFR is highest in the central region, while the specific SFR is more sensitive to the ongoing star formation. The region encompassing the cavity and SSCs contains only 12 per cent of the dust mass of the central starburst, in accord with other tracers of the interstellar medium. The gas-to-dust mass ratio is lower in the cavity and fluctuates to higher values in its periphery.