The Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey: VI. The far-infrared view of M87

Abstract

The origin of the far-infrared emission from the nearby radio galaxy M87 remains a matter of debate. Some studies find evidence of a far-infrared excess due to thermal dust emission, whereas others propose that the far-infrared emission can be explained by synchrotron emission without the need for an additional dust emission component. We present Herschel PACS and SPIRE observations of M87, taken as part of the science demonstration phase observations of the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey. We compare these data with a synchrotron model based on mid-infrared, far-infrared, submm and radio data from the literature to investigate the origin of the far-infrared emission. Both the integrated SED and the Herschel surface brightness maps are adequately explained by synchrotron emission. At odds with previous claims, we find no evidence of a diffuse dust component in M87, which is not unexpected in the harsh X-ray environment of this radio galaxy sitting at the core of the Virgo Cluster.

Letter accepted for publication in A&A (Herschel special issue)

References in corpus (13)

• Herschel Space Observatory - An ESA facility for far-infrared and submillimetre astronomy
• The Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) on the Herschel Space Observatory
• The Herschel-SPIRE instrument and its in-flight performance
• The Black Hole Mass, Stellar M/L, and Dark Halo in M87
• In-flight calibration of the Herschel-SPIRE instrument
• The Inner Jet of the Radio Galaxy M87
• The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Source Catalog
• Metal-rich multi-phase gas in M87: AGN-driven metal transport, magnetic-field supported multi-temperature gas, and constraints on non-thermal emission observed with XMM-Newton
• The Mid-Infrared Emission of M87
• The Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey: III. A constraint on dust grain lifetime in early-type galaxies
• Mid- to Far-IR Emission and Star Formation in Early-Type Galaxies
• Thermal and Non-Thermal Infrared Emission from M87
• Search for cold gas along radio lobes in the cooling core galaxies MS0735.6+7421 and M87

Cited by in corpus (38)

• A Two-Parameter Model for the Infrared/Submillimeter/Radio Spectral Energy Distributions of Galaxies and AGN
• The dust scaling relations of the Herschel Reference Survey
• The Herschel Reference Survey: Dust in Early-Type Galaxies and Across the Hubble Sequence
• Dust Spectral Energy Distributions of Nearby Galaxies: an Insight from the Herschel Reference Survey
• PACS photometry of the Herschel Reference Survey - Far-infrared/sub-millimeter colours as tracers of dust properties in nearby galaxies
• Old and young stellar populations in DustPedia galaxies and their role in dust heating
• Horizon-Scale Lepton Acceleration in Jets: Explaining the Compact Radio Emission in M87
• Mid-infrared properties of nearby low-luminosity AGN at high angular resolution
• The quenching of the star formation activity in cluster galaxies
• MUSE observations of M87: radial gradients for the stellar initial-mass function and the abundance of Sodium
• The Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey XII: FIR properties of optically-selected Virgo Cluster galaxies
• The Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey - VIII. The Bright Galaxy Sample
• Modelling TeV gamma-ray emission from the kiloparsec-scale jets of Centaurus A and M87
• Herschel-ATLAS/GAMA: a difference between star-formation rates in strong-line and weak-line radio galaxies
• The fraction of bolometric luminosity absorbed by dust in DustPedia galaxies
• The Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey - XIII. Dust in early-type galaxies
• Age and metallicity gradients support hierarchical formation for M87
• The gas-to-dust mass ratio of Centaurus A as seen by Herschel
• Herschel Far-Infrared Photometry of the Swift Burst Alert Telescope Active Galactic Nuclei Sample of the Local Universe. II. SPIRE Observations
• The imprints of AGN feedback within a supermassive black hole's sphere of influence
• Review of scientific topics for Millimetron space observatory
• A Virgo Environmental Survey Tracing Ionised Gas Emission (VESTIGE).V. Properties of the ionised gas filament of M87
• A Hubble Space Telescope Survey for Novae in M87. I. Light and Color Curves, Spatial Distributions and the Nova Rate
• The Herschel Fornax Cluster Survey I: The Bright Galaxy Sample
• The Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey XVI: a cluster inventory
• Infrared luminosity functions and dust mass functions in the EAGLE simulation
• Probing the central black hole in M87 with gamma-rays
• Predicted Sizes of Pressure-Supported HI Clouds in the Outskirts of the Virgo Cluster
• Optical and near-infrared velocity dispersions of early-type galaxies
• The Herschel Fornax Cluster Survey II: FIR properties of optically-selected Fornax cluster galaxies
• NGC4370: a case study for testing our ability to infer dust distribution and mass in nearby galaxies
• Jet in jet in M87
• The Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey. XV. Planck submillimetre sources in the Virgo Cluster
• Mid-infrared colour gradients and the colour-magnitude relation in Virgo early-type galaxies
• Searching for Nuclear Obscuration in the Infrared Spectra of Nearby FR I Radio Galaxies
• Low optical polarisation at the core of the optically-thin jet of M87
• Interpreting Millimeter Emission from IMEGIN galaxies NGC 2146 and NGC 2976
• Constraining star formation in M87 using deep HST UV data