Description
We investigate the connection between dust and gas in the nearby edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 891, a target of the Very Nearby Galaxies Survey. High resolution Herschel Space Observatory PACS and SPIRE 70, 100, 160, 250, 350, and 500 micron images are combined with JCMT SCUBA 850 micron observations to trace the far-infrared/submillimetre spectral energy distribution (SED). Maps of the HI 21cm line and CO(J=3-2) emission trace the atomic and molecular hydrogen gas, respectively. We fit one-component modified blackbody models to the integrated SED, finding a global dust mass of (8.5+/-2.0)x10^7^M_{sun}_ and an average temperature of 23+/-2K, consistent with results from previous far-infrared experiments. We also fit one-component modified blackbody models to pixel-by-pixel SEDs to produce maps of the dust mass and temperature. A comparison of the dust properties with the gaseous components of the ISM reveals strong spatial correlations between the surface mass densities of dust and the molecular hydrogen and total gas surface densities.
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