DUSTY WINDS: EXTRAPLANAR POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBON FEATURES OF NEARBY GALAXIES

Journal Article · Tue Sep 10 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/774/2/126· OSTI ID:22133885

McCormick, Alexander; Veilleux, Sylvain ^[1]; Rupke, David S. N., ^[2]

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1. Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 (United States)
2. Rhodes College, 2000 North Parkway, Memphis, TN 38112 (United States)

Recent observations have shown the presence of dust and molecular material in galactic winds, but relatively little is known about the distribution of these outflow components. To shed some light on this issue, we have used IRAC images from the Spitzer Space Telescope archive to investigate polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission from a sample of 16 local galaxies with known winds. Our focus on nearby sources (median distance 8.6 Mpc) has revealed detailed PAH structure in the winds and allowed us to measure extraplanar PAH emission. We have identified extraplanar PAH features on scales of {approx}0.8-6.0 kpc. We find a nearly linear correlation between the amount of extraplanar PAH emission and the total infrared flux, a proxy for star formation activity in the disk. Our results also indicate a correlation between the height of extraplanar PAH emission and star formation rate surface density, which supports the idea of a surface density threshold on the energy or momentum injection rate for producing detectable extraplanar wind material.

• OSTI ID: 22133885
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 774, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
COSMIC DUST
DENSITY
DISTANCE
EMISSION
MILKY WAY
POLYCYCLIC AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS
STARS
STELLAR WINDS
TELESCOPES