Quick search Find article
Quick search
Find article

MAPPING THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF DUST EXTINCTION IN NGC 959 USING BROADBAND VISIBLE AND MID-INFRARED FILTERS

FREE ISSUE

K. Tamura1, R. A. Jansen1,2 and R. A. Windhorst1,2

Show affiliations


We present a method to estimate and map the two-dimensional distribution of dust extinction in the late-type spiral galaxy NGC 959 from the theoretical and observed flux ratio of optical V and mid-IR (MIR) 3.6 μm images. Our method is applicable to both young and old stellar populations for a range of metallicities, and is not restricted to lines of sight toward star-formation (SF) regions. We explore this method using a pixel-based analysis on images of NGC 959 obtained in the V band at the Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope and at 3.6 μm (L band) with Spitzer/Infrared Array Camera. We present the original and extinction corrected Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) far-UV (FUV) and near-UV (NUV) images, as well as optical UBVR images of NGC 959. While the dust lanes are not clearly evident at GALEX resolution, our dust map clearly traces the dust that can be seen silhouetted against the galaxy's disk in the high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope (HST) images of NGC 959. The advantages of our method are (1) it only depends on two relatively common broadband images in the optical V band and in the MIR at 3.6 μm (but adding a near-UV band improves its fidelity); and (2) it is able to map the two-dimensional spatial distribution of dust within a galaxy. This powerful tool could be used to measure the detailed distribution of dust extinction within higher redshift galaxies to be observed with, e.g., the Hubble Space Telescope (HST)/WFC3 (optical near-IR) and James Webb Space Telescope (mid-IR), and to distinguish properties of dust within galaxy bulges, spiral arms, and inter-arm regions.


Keywords

dust, extinction; galaxies: individual (NGC 0959); galaxies: spiral; galaxies: structure


Dates

Issue 6 (2009 December)

Received 2009 January 28, accepted for publication 2009 September 24

Published 2009 October 29



  1. Mapping the Spatial Distribution of Dust Extinction in NGC 959 Using Broadband Visible and Mid-Infrared Filters

    K. Tamura et al. 2009 The Astronomical Journal 138 1634

  2. Absolute Properties of the Highly Eccentric Eclipsing Binary Star LV Herculis

    Guillermo Torres et al. 2009 The Astronomical Journal 138 1622

  3. On the Absence of Photospheric Net Currents in Vector Magnetograms of Sunspots Obtained from Hinode (Solar Optical Telescope/Spectro-Polarimeter)

    P. Venkatakrishnan and Sanjiv Kumar Tiwari 2009 ApJ 706 L114

  4. The White Dwarfs Within 20 Parsecs of the Sun: Kinematics and Statistics

    Edward M. Sion et al. 2009 The Astronomical Journal 138 1681

  5. The Araucaria Project: The Distance to the Small Magellanic Cloud from Near-Infrared Photometry of RR Lyrae Variables

    Olaf Szewczyk et al. 2009 The Astronomical Journal 138 1661

  6. The Host Galaxies of Swift Dark Gamma-ray Bursts: Observational Constraints on Highly Obscured and Very High Redshift GRBs

    D. A. Perley et al. 2009 The Astronomical Journal 138 1690

  7. Environments of QSOs at Redshift 0.9-1.3

    J. B. Hutchings et al. 2009 The Astronomical Journal 137 3533

  8. MASSCLEAN—Massive Cluster Evolution and Analysis Package: Description and Tests

    Bogdan Popescu and M. M. Hanson 2009 The Astronomical Journal 138 1724

  9. Line Strengths of Early-Type Galaxies

    Ricardo L. C. Ogando et al. 2008 The Astronomical Journal 135 2424

  10. Linking Remote Imagery of a Coronal Mass Ejection to Its In Situ Signatures at 1 AU

    C. Möstl et al 2009 ApJ 705 L180

View by subject




Export








Please login to access our web services, or create an account if you don't yet have one.

You must have cookies enabled in your web browser to be able to login.

Username
Password

Forgotten your password? Get a new one here.