2004/05/29 by M. A. Pahre, M. L. N. Ashby, G. G. Fazio +1 · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Bulge #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Infrared #Physics #Spiral galaxy #Spitzer Space Telescope #Starlight #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Telescope #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/422914
ApJS (in press), Spitzer Space Telescope Special Issue; 13 pages, LaTeX (or Latex, etc); Figure 1ab is large, color plate; full-resolution plates in .pdf format available at http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/irac/publications/
arxiv created 2004/05/29 · openalex publication_date 2004/09/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
The mid-infrared emission from 18 nearby galaxies were imaged with the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) on the Spitzer Space Telescope , sampling the spatial distributions of the reddening-free stellar photospheric emission and the warm dust in the interstellar medium. These two components provide a new framework for galaxy morphology classification in which the presence of spiral arms and their emission strength relative to the starlight can be measured directly and with high contrast. Four mid-infrared classification methods are explored, three of which are based on quantitative global parameters (colors and bulge-to-disk ratio) that are similar to those used in the past for optical studies; in this limited sample, all correlate well with traditional B -band classification. We suggest reasons why infrared classification may be superior to optical classification.