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A Search for Extraplanar Dust in Nearby Edge-On Spirals | J. Christopher Howk & Blair D. Savage
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4 Feb 1999 | Journal: | Astron.J. 117 (1999) 2077 | Subject: | astro-ph | Affiliation: | Wisconsin | Abstract: | We present high resolution BV images of 12 edge-on spiral galaxies observed with the WIYN 3.5-m telescope. These images were obtained to search for extraplanar (|z| > 0.4 kpc) absorbing dust structures similar to those previously found in NGC 891 (Howk & Savage 1997). Our imaged galaxies include a sample of seven massive L_*-like spiral galaxies within D<25 Mpc that have inclinations i > 87 deg from the plane of the sky. We find that five of these seven systems show extraplanar dust, visible as highly-structured absorbing clouds against the background stellar light of the galaxies. The more prominent structures are estimated to have associated gas masses >10^5 M_sun; the implied potential energies are > 10^(52) ergs. All of the galaxies in our sample that show detectable halpha emission at large z also show extraplanar dust structures. None of those galaxies for which extraplanar halpha searches were negative show evidence for extensive high-z dust. The existence of extraplanar dust is a common property of massive spiral galaxies. We discuss several mechanisms for shaping the observed dust features, emphasizing the possibility that these dusty clouds represent the dense phase of a multiphase medium at high-z in spiral galaxies. The correlation between high-z dust and extraplanar Halpha emission may simply suggest that both trace the high-z interstellar medium in its various forms (or phases), the existence of which may ultimately be driven by vigorous star formation in the underlying disk. (Abstract abridged) | Source: | arXiv, astro-ph/9902061 | Services: | Forum | Review | PDF | Favorites |
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