EXTENDING THE NEARBY GALAXY HERITAGE WITH WISE: FIRST RESULTS FROM THE WISE ENHANCED RESOLUTION GALAXY ATLAS
- Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
- Physics and Astronomy Department, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095 (United States)
- Australian Astronomical Observatory, P.O. Box 915, North Ryde, NSW 1670 (Australia)
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Mail Stop 169-221, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States)
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 665, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
- Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH (United Kingdom)
- Department of Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
- Spitzer Science Center, IPAC, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
- CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science, Australia Telescope National Facility (ATNF), P.O. Box 76, Epping, NSW 1710 (Australia)
- Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science, 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101 (United States)
- NRAO, 520 Edgemont Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903-2475 (United States)
- Department of Physics, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616 (United States)
The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mapped the entire sky at mid-infrared wavelengths 3.4 {mu}m, 4.6 {mu}m, 12 {mu}m, and 22 {mu}m. The mission was primarily designed to extract point sources, leaving resolved and extended sources, for the most part, unexplored. Accordingly, we have begun a dedicated WISE Enhanced Resolution Galaxy Atlas (WERGA) project to fully characterize large, nearby galaxies and produce a legacy image atlas and source catalog. Here we demonstrate the first results of the WERGA project for a sample of 17 galaxies, chosen to be of large angular size, diverse morphology, and covering a range in color, stellar mass, and star formation. It includes many well-studied galaxies, such as M 51, M 81, M 87, M 83, M 101, and IC 342. Photometry and surface brightness decomposition is carried out after special super-resolution processing, achieving spatial resolutions similar to that of Spitzer Infrared Array Camera. The enhanced resolution method is summarized in the first paper of this two-part series. In this second work, we present WISE, Spitzer, and Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) photometric and characterization measurements for the sample galaxies, combining the measurements to study the global properties. We derive star formation rates using the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon sensitive 12 {mu}m (W3) fluxes, warm-dust sensitive 22 {mu}m (W4) fluxes, and young massive-star sensitive ultraviolet (UV) fluxes. Stellar masses are estimated using the 3.4 {mu}m (W1) and 4.6 {mu}m (W2) measurements that trace the dominant stellar mass content. We highlight and showcase the detailed results of M 83, comparing the WISE/Spitzer results with the Australia Telescope Compact Array H I gas distribution and GALEX UV emission, tracing the evolution from gas to stars. In addition to the enhanced images, WISE's all-sky coverage provides a tremendous advantage over Spitzer for building a complete nearby galaxy catalog, tracing both stellar mass and star formation histories. We discuss the construction of a complete mid-infrared catalog of galaxies and its complementary role of studying the assembly and evolution of galaxies in the local universe.
- OSTI ID:
- 22089745
- Journal Information:
- Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online), Vol. 145, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1538-3881
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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