Far Infrared and Submillimeter Photometric Mapping of Spiral Galaxies in the Virgo Cluster.
01 January 1989
Four "normal" Virgo cluster spirals, NGC4254, NGC4321, NGC4501, and NGC4654, were mapped at 160microns and 360microns wavelengths with arrays of 45" beams using the NASA Kuiper Airborne Observatory and the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility. The infrared spectra (nu S sub nu) peak at about 90microns wavelength, and the flux density S sub nu proportional to nu sup (3.5) at 350microns, indicating that these galaxies contain few large or cold dust grains. Approximately half (35% to 65%) of the total flux from the galaxies is emitted at wavelenghts longer than 12microns. The maps show centrally peaked, but spatially extended luminosity distributions consistent with disk material.