THE SPITZER LOCAL VOLUME LEGACY: SURVEY DESCRIPTION AND INFRARED PHOTOMETRY

Journal Article · Sun Sep 20 00:00:00 EDT 2009 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/703/1/517· OSTI ID:21371992

Dale, D A; Cohen, S A; Johnson, L C; Schuster, M D ^[1]; Calzetti, D ^[2]; Engelbracht, C W; Kennicutt, R C; Block, M; Marble, A R ^[3]; Gil de Paz, A ^[4]; Lee, J C ^[5]; Begum, A ^[6]; Dalcanton, J J ^[7]; Funes, J G ^[8]; Gordon, K D ^[9]; Johnson, B D ^[10]; Sakai, S ^[11]; Skillman, E D ^[12]; Van Zee, L ^[13]; Walter, F ^[14]

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071 (United States)
2. Astronomy Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003 (United States)
3. Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States)
4. Departamento de Astrofisica, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, E-28040 (Spain)
5. Carnegie Observatories, 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101 (United States)
6. Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0HA (United Kingdom)
7. Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 (United States)
8. Vatican Observatory Research Group, Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States)
9. Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
10. Department of Astronomy, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027 (United States)
11. Division of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (United States)
12. Astronomy Department, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455 (United States)
13. Department of Astronomy, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405 (United States)
14. Max Planck Institut fuer Astronomie, Koenigstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg (Germany)

The survey description and the near-, mid-, and far-infrared flux properties are presented for the 258 galaxies in the Local Volume Legacy (LVL). LVL is a Spitzer Space Telescope legacy program that surveys the local universe out to 11 Mpc, built upon a foundation of ultraviolet, Halpha, and Hubble Space Telescope imaging from 11HUGS (11 Mpc Halpha and Ultraviolet Galaxy Survey) and ANGST (ACS Nearby Galaxy Survey Treasury). LVL covers an unbiased, representative, and statistically robust sample of nearby star-forming galaxies, exploiting the highest extragalactic spatial resolution achievable with Spitzer. As a result of its approximately volume-limited nature, LVL augments previous Spitzer observations of present-day galaxies with improved sampling of the low-luminosity galaxy population. The collection of LVL galaxies shows a large spread in mid-infrared colors, likely due to the conspicuous deficiency of 8 {mu}m polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon emission from low-metallicity, low-luminosity galaxies. Conversely, the far-infrared emission tightly tracks the total infrared emission, with a dispersion in their flux ratio of only 0.1 dex. In terms of the relation between the infrared-to-ultraviolet ratio and the ultraviolet spectral slope, the LVL sample shows redder colors and/or lower infrared-to-ultraviolet ratios than starburst galaxies, suggesting that reprocessing by dust is less important in the lower mass systems that dominate the LVL sample. Comparisons with theoretical models suggest that the amplitude of deviations from the relation found for starburst galaxies correlates with the age of the stellar populations that dominate the ultraviolet/optical luminosities.

• OSTI ID: 21371992
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 703, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/703/1/517; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
DUSTS
EMISSION
GALAXIES
LUMINOSITY
PHOTOMETRY
POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS
SPATIAL RESOLUTION
STARS
TELESCOPES
ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION
UNIVERSE
AROMATICS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
HYDROCARBONS
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
RADIATIONS
RESOLUTION