Dust heating sources in galaxies: The case of M33 (HERM33ES)

Abstract

Dust emission is one of the main windows to the physics of galaxies and to star formation as the radiation from young, hot stars is absorbed by the dust and reemitted at longer wavelengths. The recently launched Herschel satellite now provides a view of dust emission in the far-infrared at an unequaled resolution and quality up to 500 μm. In the context of the Herschel HERM33ES open time key project, we are studying the moderately inclined Scd local group galaxy M33 which is located only 840kpc away. In this article, using Spitzer and Herschel data ranging from 3.6 μm to 500 μm, along with HI, Hα maps, and Galaxy Evolution Explorer ultraviolet data, we have studied the emission of the dust at the high spatial resolution of 150pc. Combining Spitzer and Herschel bands, we have provided new, inclination-corrected, resolved estimators of the total infrared brightness and of the star formation rate from any combination of these bands. The study of the colors of the warm and cold dust populations shows that the temperature of the former is, at high brightness, dictated by young massive stars but, at lower brightness, heating is taken over by the evolved populations. Conversely, the temperature of the cold dust is tightly driven by the evolved stellar populations. © 2011. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.