Letter to the Editor

The Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey^*

IV. Resolved dust analysis of spiral galaxies

M. W. L. Smith¹, C. Vlahakis², M. Baes³, G. J. Bendo⁴, S. Bianchi⁵, D. J. Bomans⁶, A. Boselli⁷, M. Clemens⁸, E. Corbelli⁵, L. Cortese¹, A. Dariush¹, J. I. Davies¹, I. De Looze³, S. di Serego Alighieri⁵, D. Fadda⁹, J. Fritz³, D. A. Garcia-Appadoo¹⁰, G. Gavazzi¹¹, C. Giovanardi⁵, M. Grossi¹², T. M. Hughes¹, L. K. Hunt⁵, A. P. Jones¹³, S. Madden¹⁴, D. Pierini¹⁵, M. Pohlen¹, S. Sabatini¹⁶, J. Verstappen³, E. M. Xilouris¹⁷ and S. Zibetti¹⁸

¹ School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, The Parade, Cardiff, CF24 3AA, UK e-mail: Matthew.Smith@astro.cf.ac.uk
² Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
³ Sterrenkundig Observatorium, Universiteit Gent, Krijgslaan 281 S9, 9000 Gent, Belgium
⁴ Astrophysics Group, Imperial College London, Blackett Laboratory, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2AZ, UK
⁵ INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo Enrico Fermi 5, 50125 Firenze, Italy
⁶ Astronomical Institute, Ruhr-University Bochum, Universitäetsstr. 150, 44780 Bochum, Germany
⁷ Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille, UMR 6110 CNRS, 38 rue F. Joliot-Curie, 13388 Marseille, France
⁸ INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Vicolo dell'Osservatorio 5, 35122 Padova, Italy
⁹ NASA Herschel Science Center, California Institute of Technology, MS 100-22, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
¹⁰ ESO, Alonso de Cordova 3107, Vitacura, Santiago, Chile
¹¹ Universita' di Milano-Bicocca, piazza della Scienza 3, 20100, Milano, Italy
¹² CAAUL, Observatório Astronómico de Lisboa, Universidade de Lisboa, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-018, Lisboa, Portugal
¹³ Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS), Batiment 121, Universite Paris-Sud 11 and CNRS, 91405 Orsay, France
¹⁴ Laboratoire AIM, CEA/DSM- CNRS – Université Paris Diderot, Irfu/Service d'Astrophysique, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
¹⁵ Max-Planck-Institut fuer extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse, Postfach 1312, 85741, Garching, Germany
¹⁶ INAF - Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale e Fisica Cosmica, via Fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00133 Roma, Italy
¹⁷ Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, National Observatory of Athens, I. Metaxa and Vas. Pavlou, P. Penteli, 15236 Athens, Greece
¹⁸ Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Köenigstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany

Received: 30 March 2010
Accepted: 13 May 2010

Abstract

We present a resolved dust analysis of three of the largest angular size spiral galaxies, NGC 4501 and NGC 4567/8, in the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey (HeViCS) science demonstration field. Herschel has unprecedented spatial resolution at far-infrared wavelengths and with the PACS and SPIRE instruments samples both sides of the peak in the far infrared spectral energy distribution (SED). We present maps of dust temperature, dust mass, and gas-to-dust ratio, produced by fitting modified black bodies to the SED for each pixel. We find that the distribution of dust temperature in both systems is in the range ~19–22 K and peaks away from the centres of the galaxies. The distribution of dust mass in both systems is symmetrical and exhibits a single peak coincident with the galaxy centres. This Letter provides a first insight into the future analysis possible with a large sample of resolved galaxies to be observed by Herschel.