2014/04/08 by Giovanni Natale, G. Natale, K. Foyle +3
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Emission spectrum #Far infrared #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Infrared #Luminosity #Photometry (optics) #Physics #Spectral line #Star formation #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/stu560
Accepted for publication in MNRAS
arxiv created 2014/04/08 · openalex publication_date 2014/04/21 · arxiv updated 2015/06/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We present a multiwavelength study of a sample of far-infrared (FIR) sources detected on the Herschel broad-band maps of the nearby galaxy M33. We perform source photometry on the FIR maps as well as mid-infrared (MIR), Hα, far-ultraviolet and integrated H i and CO line emission maps. By fitting MIR/FIR dust emission spectra, the source dust masses, temperatures and luminosities are inferred. The sources are classified based on their Hα morphology (sub-structured versus not-substructured) and on whether they have a significant CO detection (S/N > 3σ). We find that the sources have dust masses in the range 102–104 M⊙ and that they present significant differences in their inferred dust/star formation/gas parameters depending on their Hα morphology and CO detection classification. The results suggests differences in the evolutionary states or in the number of embedded H ii regions between the sub-samples. The source background-subtracted dust emission seems to be predominantly powered by local star formation, as indicated by a strong correlation between the dust luminosity and the dust-corrected Hα luminosity and the fact that the extrapolated young stellar luminosity is high enough to account for the observed dust emission. Finally, we do not find a strong correlation between the dust-corrected Hα luminosity and the dust mass of the sources, consistent with previous results on the breakdown of simple scaling relations at sub-kpc scales. However, the scatter in the relation is significantly reduced by correcting the Hα luminosity for the age of the young stellar populations in the star-forming regions.