* Astronomy

Title: Properties of dust and PAHs in the hot plasma of the elliptical galaxy NGC4125 revealed with AKARI and Spitzer
Authors: Hidehiro Kaneda, Daisuke Ishihara, Takashi Onaka, Toyoaki Suzuki, Tatsuya Mori, Shinki Oyabu, Mitsuyoshi Yamagishi

We present the spatial distributions of dust and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the elliptical galaxy NGC4125, revealed by AKARI and Spitzer. NGC4125 is relatively bright in the dust and the PAH emission for elliptical galaxies, although it certainly possesses diffuse interstellar hot plasma indicated by the high spatial resolution X-ray data of Chandra. We investigate how the dust and PAHs interact with the X-ray plasma or avoid the interaction by comparing their spatial distributions. We find that the distributions of the PAHs and dust are different from each other, both showing a significant deviation from a smooth stellar distribution. The PAH emission predominantly comes from a dust lane, a compact dense molecular gas region in the galactic centre, where the PAHs are likely to have been protected from the interaction with the X-ray plasma. The dust emission has more extended structures similar to the distribution of the X-ray plasma, suggesting their interaction to some extent. We also discuss a possible origin of the dust and PAHs in the galaxy.

Read more  (994kb, PDF)