Herschel-SPIRE observations of the disturbed galaxy NGC 4438

Cortese, L.; Bendo, G. J.; Boselli, A.; Davies, J. I.; Gomez, H. L.; Pohlen, M.; Auld, R.; Baes, M.; Bock, J. J.; Bradford, M.; Buat, V.; Castro-Rodríguez, N.; Chanial, P.; Charlot, S.; Ciesla, L.; Clements, D. L.; Cooray, A.; Cormier, D.; Dwek, E.; Eales, S. A.; Elbaz, D.; Galametz, M.; Galliano, F.; Gear, W. K.; Glenn, J.; Griffin, M.; Hony, S.; Isaak, K. G.; Levenson, L. R.; Lu, N.; Madden, S.; O'Halloran, B.; Okumura, K.; Oliver, S.; Page, M. J.; Panuzzo, P.; Papageorgiou, A.; Parkin, T. J.; Pérez-Fournon, I.; Rangwala, N.; Rigby, E. E.; Roussel, H.; Rykala, A.; Sacchi, N.; Sauvage, M.; Schulz, B.; Schirm, M. R. P.; Smith, M. W. L.; Spinoglio, L.; Stevens, J. A.; Srinivasan, S.; Symeonidis, M.; Trichas, M.; Vaccari, M.; Vigroux, L.; Wilson, C. D.; Wozniak, H.; Wright, G. S.; Zeilinger, W. W.
Bibliographical reference

Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 518, id.L63

Advertised on:
7
2010
Number of authors
59
IAC number of authors
2
Citations
30
Refereed citations
26
Description
We present Herschel-SPIRE observations of the perturbed galaxy NGC 4438 in the Virgo cluster. These images reveal the presence of extra-planar dust up to ~4-5 kpc away from the galaxy's disk. The dust closely follows the distribution of the stripped atomic and molecular hydrogen, supporting the idea that gas and dust are perturbed in a similar fashion by the cluster environment. Interestingly, the extra-planar dust lacks a warm temperature component when compared to the material still present in the disk, explaining why it was missed by previous far-infrared investigations. Our study provides evidence for dust stripping in clusters of galaxies and illustrates the potential of Herschel data for our understanding of environmental effects on galaxy evolution. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.
Related projects
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Formation and Evolution of Galaxies: Observations in Infrared and other Wavelengths
This IAC research group carries out several extragalactic projects in different spectral ranges, using space as well as ground-based telescopes, to study the cosmological evolution of galaxies and the origin of nuclear activity in active galaxies. The group is a member of the international consortium which built the SPIRE instrument for the
Ismael
Pérez Fournon