2006/10/17 by Y. Shi, Yong Shi, G. H. Rieke +6 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Acceleration #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Far infrared #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Infrared #Jet (fluid) #Particle acceleration #Physics #Radio galaxy #Thermal #Thermal emission #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/510188
published as Astrophys.J.655:781-789,2007 · Accepted for publication in ApJ, 15 pages, 7 figures. The high-resolution pdf is at http://cztsy.as.arizona.edu/~yong/M87.pdf
arxiv created 2006/10/17 · openalex publication_date 2007/01/23 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We discuss images of M87 from 3.6 to 160 μm obtained with Spitzer . As found previously, there is an excess in the far-infrared over a simple power-law interpolation from the radio to the resolved nonthermal features in the mid-infrared and optical. We show that this excess is most likely due to warm dust in the galaxy itself and that the properties of this emission component are similar to the far-infrared emission of normal giant elliptical galaxies. The new observations allow us to determine the spectrum of the jet and surrounding lobes of nonthermal emission. We find that even in the lobes, the synchrotron break frequency is in the optical, probably requiring in situ particle acceleration not only in the jet but in the lobes as well.