Letter to the Editor

The dust morphology of the elliptical Galaxy M 86 with SPIRE^*

¹ School of Physics & Astronomy, Cardiff University, The Parade, Cardiff, CF24 3AA, UK e-mail: haley.gomez@astro.cf.ac.uk
² Sterrenkundig Observatorium, Universiteit Gent, Krijgslaan 281 S9, 9000 Gent, Belgium
³ Astrophysics Group, Imperial College, Blackett Laboratory, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2AZ, UK
⁴ Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille, UMR6110 CNRS, 38 rue F. Joliot-Curie, 13388 Marseille, France
⁵ INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo E. Fermi 5, 50125 Firenze, Italy
⁶ Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
⁷ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA 91109, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
⁸ Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) and Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
⁹ CEA, Laboratoire AIM, Irfu/SAp, Orme des Merisiers, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
¹⁰ Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, UMR7095 CNRS, 98 bis Boulevard Arago, 75014 Paris, France
¹¹ Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
¹² Observational Cosmology Lab, Code 665, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
¹³ Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, CASA CB-389, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, US
¹⁴ ESA Astrophysics Missions Division, ESTEC, PO Box 299, 2200 AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands
¹⁵ Astronomy Centre, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sussex, UK
¹⁶ Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Holmbury St Mary, Dorking, Surrey RH5 6NT, UK
¹⁷ Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, L8S 4M1, Canada
¹⁸ School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
¹⁹ Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario, INAF, via del Fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00133 Roma, Italy
²⁰ Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, California Institute of Technology, 770 South Wilson Av, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
²¹ Centre for Astrophysics Research, Science and Technology Research Centre, University of Hertfordshire, Herts AL10 9AB, UK
²² University of Padova, Department of Astronomy, Vicolo Osservatorio 3, 35122 Padova, Italy
²³ Observatoire Astronomique de Strasbourg, UMR 7550 Université de Strasbourg - CNRS, 11, rue de l'Université, 67000 Strasbourg, France
²⁴ UK Astronomy Technology Center, Royal Observatory Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH9 3HJ, UK
²⁵ Institut für Astronomie, Universität Wien, Türkenschanzstr. 17, 1180 Wien, Austria

Received: 29 March 2010
Accepted: 25 April 2010

Abstract

We present Herschel-SPIRE observations at 250–500 μm of the giant elliptical galaxy M 86 and examine the distribution of the resolved cold dust emission and its relation with other galactic tracers. The SPIRE images reveal three dust components: emission from the central region; a dust lane extending north-south; and a bright emission feature 10 kpc to the south-east. We estimate that ~10⁶  of dust is spatially coincident with atomic and ionized hydrogen, originating from stripped material from the nearby spiral NGC 4438 due to recent tidal interactions with M 86. The gas-to-dust ratio of the cold gas component ranges from ~20–80. We discuss the different heating mechanisms for the dust features.