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Description
We present Herschel/PACS 100 and 160{mu}m integrated photometry for the 323 galaxies in the Herschel Reference Survey (HRS), a K-band, volume-limited sample of galaxies in the local Universe. Once combined with the Herschel/SPIRE observations already available, these data make the HRS the largest representative sample of nearby galaxies with homogeneous coverage across the 100-500{mu}m wavelength range. In this paper, we take advantage of this unique data set to investigate the properties and shape of the far-infrared/submillimetre spectral energy distribution in nearby galaxies. We show that, in the stellar mass range covered by the HRS (8<~log(M*/M_{sun}_)<~12), the far-infrared/submillimetre colours are inconsistent with a single modified blackbody having the same dust emissivity index {beta} for all galaxies. In particular, either {beta} decreases or multiple temperature components are needed, when moving from metal-rich/gas-poor to metal-poor/gas-rich galaxies. We thus investigate how the dust temperature and mass obtained from a single modified blackbody depend on the assumptions made on {beta}. We show that, while the correlations between dust temperature, galaxy structure and star formation rate are strongly model dependent, the dust mass scaling relations are much more reliable, and variations of {beta} only change the strength of the observed trends.
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