KINGFISH

   I am a member of the KINGFISH (Key Insights on Nearby Galaxies: a Far-Infrared Survey with Herschel) team. KINGFISH is a Herschel open time key programme whose Principal Investigator is Robert C. Kennicutt (IoA, Cambridge). The KINGFISH sample covers a wide range of environments: nearly two orders of magnitude in oxygen abundance (7.3 < 12 + log(O/H) < 9.3, total infrared luminosities ranging from 106 to 1011 L⊙, and star formation rates distributed from 10-3 to 7 M⊙yr−1). This project is the successor of the SINGS (Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey) programme that was observing nearby galaxies at near to far-infrared wavelengths.

    The galaxies are close enough (d < 30 Mpc) to assure multiple resolution elements across the galaxies, even at the lowest resolution (36’’ at 500 μm). The high sensitivity of Herschel offers the possibility to characterise the ISM in detail and resolve the actors of stellar formation. It enables us to draw the inventory a local scale of the dust temperature distribution, study the grain properties (composition, emissivity for instance), study the heating and cooling of the ISM and probe the cold gas.

You can access to the KINGFISH website here.

SAG2 and the Dwarf Galaxy Survey

  

I am a member of the SPIRE Special Specialist Astronomy Group SAG2. This programme also observes nearby galaxies using the instruments onboard Herschel and includes three guarantee time key programs: the Herschel Reference Survey (PI: S. Eales), the Very Nearby Galaxy Survey (PI: C. Wilson) and the Dwarf Galaxy Survey (PI: S. Madden) in which I am more involved.

The DGS sample includes 55 low-metallicity galaxies observed in the 70 to 500 μm range and star formation rates varying from 0.1 to 10 M⊙yr−1. The metallicity range is also the wider range available  for galaxies of the Nearby Universe, from solar metallicity to ~1/50 Z⊙. Spectroscopic observations between 60 and 200 μm with PACS complement the photometric observations for a subsample of the DGS galaxies. Those low-metallicity galaxies could be studied as a proxy for high redshifts galaxies.

HERITAGE

  

I am finally a member of the HERITAGE (HERschel Inventory of The Agents of Galaxy Evolution) consortium whose Principal Investigator is Margaret Meixner (STScI, Baltimore). The programme is dedicated to the observation of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) and the Magellanic Bridge in the SPIRE 250, 350 et 500 μm bands and in the PACS 100 and 160 μm bands. The Magellanic Clouds are low-metallicity environments (~1/2 solar for the LMC, ~1/5 for the SMC). Their nearness (50-60 kpc) allows us to resolve the thermal dust emission in individual regions of up to 10 pc. The Magellanic Clouds are ideal sources to study the evolution of the ISM and the matter cycle at global and local scales and to probe all the different phases of dust (in particuliar the cold dust grains traced by Herschel), embedded Young Stellar Objects (YSO), dust enrichment by massive/evolved stars or the influence of SN ejections on the dust grain size distribution in sub-metallic conditions.