Diffuse Extraplanar Dust in NGC 891

Abstract

We report the detection of vertically extended far-ultraviolet (FUV) and near-UV emissions in an edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 891, which we interpret as being due to dust-scattered starlight. Three-dimensional radiative transfer models are used to investigate the content of the extraplanar dust that is required to explain the UV emission. The UV halos are well reproduced by a radiative transfer model with two exponential dust disks, one with a scaleheight of $\approx$ 0.2 - 0.25 kpc and the other with a scaleheight of $\approx$ 1.2 - 2.0 kpc. The central face-on optical depth of the geometrically thick disk is found to be ${\tau }_{thick}\approx$ 0.3 - 0.5 at B-band. The results indicate that the dust mass at |z| > 2 kpc is $\approx$ 3 - 5% of the total dust mass, which accord well with the recent Herschel sub-millimeter observation. Our results, together with the recent discovery of the UV halos in other edge-on galaxies, suggest the widespread existence of the geometrically thick dust layer above the galactic plane in spirals.

6 pages, 5 figure, accepted for publication in the ApJL

References in corpus (23)

• Starburst99: Synthesis Models for Galaxies with Active Star Formation
• The GALEX Ultraviolet Atlas of Nearby Galaxies
• Scattering by Interstellar Dust Grains: Optical and Ultraviolet
• The cold gaseous halo of NGC 891
• Modelling the spectral energy distribution of galaxies. III. Attenuation of stellar light in spiral galaxies
• Modelling the spectral energy distribution of galaxies. V. The dust and PAH emission SEDs of disk galaxies
• Measuring the galaxy-mass and galaxy-dust correlations through magnification and reddening
• Modeling the spectral energy distribution of galaxies. II. Disk opacity and star formation in 5 edge-on spirals
• Extraplanar Dust in the Edge-On Spiral NGC 891
• Dust Extinction and Emission in a Clumpy Galactic Disk. An Application of the Radiative Transfer Code TRADING
• The Herschel-ATLAS: The dust energy balance in the edge-on spiral galaxy UGC 4754
• The dust energy balance in the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 4565
• Radiative Transfer Analysis of Far-UV Background Observations Obtained with the Far-Ultraviolet Space Telescope (FAUST)
• A Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 Investigation of the Disk-Halo Interface in NGC891
• Observation of the Far-ultraviolet Continuum Background with SPEAR/FIMS
• Enrichment of the Intergalactic Medium by Radiation Pressure Driven Dust Efflux
• The extent of dust in NGC 891 from Herschel/SPIRE images
• Can the Lyman Continuum leaked out of H II regions explain Diffuse Ionized Gas?
• On the origins of the diffuse H-alpha emission: Ionized gas or dust-scattered H-alpha halos?
• A dust component 2 kpc above the plane in NGC 891
• The Diffuse Galactic Far-Ultraviolet Sky
• Dust masses and star formation in bright IRAS galaxies Application of a physical model for the interpretation of FIR observations
• Dust Scattering In Turbulent Media: Correlation Between The Scattered Light and Dust Column Density

Cited by in corpus (32)

• Cool Outflows in Galaxies and their Implications
• Diffuse ionized gas in galaxies across the Hubble sequence at the CALIFA resolution
• Radiative Transfer Model of Dust Attenuation Curves in Clumpy, Galactic Environments
• Extragalactic background Light: a measurement at 400 nm using dark cloud shadow II. Spectroscopic separation of dark cloud's light, and results
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Gas Fuelling of Spiral Galaxies in the Local Universe I. - The Effect of the Group Environment on Star Formation in Spiral Galaxies
• Predicting the stellar and non-equilibrium dust emission spectra of high-resolution simulated galaxies with DART-Ray
• Halo dust detection around NGC 891
• Ly-alpha Radiative Transfer: Monte-Carlo Simulation of the Wouthuysen-Field Effect
• Dust entrainment in galactic winds
• Testing a Dynamical Equilibrium Model of the Extraplanar Diffuse Ionized Gas in NGC 891
• Extragalactic Background Light: Inventory of light throughout the cosmic history
• Ultraviolet Halos Around Spiral Galaxies. I. Morphology
• The GALEX Ultraviolet Virgo Cluster Survey (GUViCS). V. Ultraviolet diffuse emission and cirrus properties in the Virgo cluster direction
• SNIa Host Galaxy Properties and the Dust Extinction Distribution
• Comparison of the extraplanar H$\alpha$ and UV emissions in the halos of nearby edge-on spiral galaxies
• Ultraviolet Radiative Transfer Modeling of Nearby Galaxies with Extraplanar Dusts
• Exploring the Dust Content of Galactic Halos with Herschel III. NGC 891
• Ly-alpha Radiative Transfer: A Stokes Vector Approach to Ly-alpha Polarization
• Near-Infrared Structure of Fast and Slow Rotating Disk Galaxies
• The distribution of dust in edge-on galaxies: I. The global structure
• The nature of the UV halo around the spiral galaxy NGC 3628
• The stratification of ISM properties in the edge-on galaxy NGC 891 revealed by NIKA2
• Origin of the Diffuse, Far Ultraviolet Emission in the Interarm Regions of M101
• Candidate List of Edge-on Galaxies with Substantial Extraplanar Dust
• Polarization as a probe of thick dust disk in edge-on galaxies: application to NGC 891
• Constraining the top-light initial mass function in the extended ultraviolet disk of M83
• Observing the Earliest Stages of Star Formation in Galaxies: 8 micron Cores in Three Edge-on Disks
• Radiative transfer in disc galaxies $-$ V. The accuracy of the KB approximation
• Seeking Edge-on Galaxies with Substantial Extraplanar Dust Using a Radiative Transfer Model: Determination of the Model Parameter Uncertainties for EON_10.477_41.954 (FGC 79)
• Disc-halo gas outflows driven by stellar clusters as seen in multiwavelength tracers
• A Monte Carlo Implementation of Galactic Free-Free Emission for the EoR Foreground Models
• Exploring the interstellar medium of NGC 891 at millimeter wavelengths using the NIKA2 camera