How transparent are spiral galaxies in the near infrared?

Details How transparent are spiral galaxies in the near infrared? How transparent are spiral galaxies in the near infrared?

Jun 1992

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1992aj....103.1761p&link_type=abstract

Astronomical Journal (ISSN 0004-6256), vol. 103, no. 6, June 1992, p. 1761-1768. Research supported by Smithsonian Institution.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

44

Infrared Photometry, Near Infrared Radiation, Spiral Galaxies, Transparence, Astronomical Models, Astronomical Photometry, Brightness Distribution

Scientific paper

The dependence of surface brightness on inclination for galaxies in the near-infrared H band has been investigated. It is found that spirals behave in a semitransparent way, with face-on absorption in H averaging about 0.10 mag. From near-infrared images it is found that the scale height of the dust in spiral galaxies is about 0.5-0.6 times that of the stars. These two results together predict an average optical depth of about 1.0 and a face-on absorption in B of 0.46 mag, considerably larger than, e.g., used by de Vaucouleurs et al. (1976). Even though the range of observed surface brightness in B is extremely small (Freeman's law), the range in H is considerable, and Freeman's law is likely to be caused by dust absorption rather than to reflect the constancy of the central surface density of stars in the disk.

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