We present an updated version of SKIRT, a 3D Monte Carlo radiative transfer code developed to simulate dusty galaxies. The main novel characteristics of the SKIRT code are the use of a stellar foam to generate random positions, an efficient combination of eternal forced scattering and continuous absorption, and a new library approach that links the radiative transfer code to the DustEM dust emission library. This approach enables a fast, accurate and self-consistent calculation of the dust emission of arbitrary mixtures of transiently heated dust grains and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, even for full 3D models containing millions of dust cells. We have demonstrated the accuracy of the SKIRT code through a set of simulations based on the edge-on spiral galaxy UGC 4754. The models we ran were gradually refined from a smooth, 2D, LTE model to a fully 3D model that includes NLTE dust emission and a clumpy structure of the dusty ISM. We find that clumpy models absorb UV and optical radiation less efficiently than smooth models with the same amount of dust, and that the dust in clumpy models is on average both cooler and less luminous. Our simulations demonstrate that, given the appropriate use of optimization techniques, it is possible to efficiently and accurately run Monte Carlo radiative transfer simulations of arbitrary 3D structures of several million dust cells, including a full calculation of the NLTE emission by arbitrary dust mixtures.

We present Herschel observations of 62 early-type galaxies (ETGs), including 39 galaxies morphologically classified as S0+S0a and 23 galaxies classified as ellipticals using SPIRE at 250, 350 and 500 µm as part of the volume-limited Herschel Reference Survey (HRS). We detect dust emission in 24% of the ellipticals and 62% of the S0s. The mean temperature of the dust is T d = 23.9 ± 0.8 K, warmer than that found for late-type galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. The mean dust mass for the entire detected early-type sample is logM d = 6.1 ± 0.1 M ⊙ with mean dust-to-stellar mass ratio of log(M d /M * ) = −4.3 ± 0.1. Including the non-detections, these parameters are logM d = 5.6 ± 0.1 and log(M d /M * ) = −5.1 ± 0.1 respectively. The average dust-to-stellar mass ratio for the early-type sample is fifty times lower, with larger dispersion, than the spiral galaxies observed as part of the HRS, and there is an order of magnitude decline in M d /M * between the S0s and ellipticals. We use UV and optical photometry to show that virtually all the galaxies lie close to the red sequence yet the large number of detections of cool dust, the gas-to-dust ratios and the ratios of far-infrared to radio emission all suggest that many ETGs contain a cool interstellar medium similar to that in late-type galaxies. We show that the sizes of the dust sources in S0s are much smaller than those in early-type spirals and the decrease in the dust-to-stellar mass ratio from early-type spirals to S0s cannot simply be explained by an increase in the bulge-to-disk ratio. These results suggest that the disks in S0s contain much less dust (and presumably gas) than the disks of early-type spirals and this cannot be explained simply by current environmental effects, such as ram-pressure stripping. The wide range in the dust-to-stellar mass ratio for ETGs and the lack of a correlation between dust mass and optical luminosity suggest that much of the dust in the ETGs detected by Herschel has been acquired as the result of interactions, although we show these are unlikely to have had a major effect on the stellar masses of the ETGs. The Herschel observations tentatively suggest that in the most massive systems, the mass of interstellar medium is unconnected to the evolution of the stellar populations in these galaxies.

We describe the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey and the first data that cover the complete survey area (four 4 × 4 deg2 regions). We use these data to measure and compare the global far‐infrared properties of 78 optically bright galaxies that are selected at 500 μm and detected in all five far‐infrared bands. We show that our measurements and calibration are broadly consistent with previous data obtained by the IRAS, ISO, Spitzer and Planck. We use SPIRE and PACS photometry data to produce 100‐, 160‐, 250‐, 350‐ and 500‐μm cluster luminosity distributions. These luminosity distributions are not power laws, but ‘peaked’, with small numbers of both faint and bright galaxies. We measure a cluster 100–500 μm far‐infrared luminosity density of 1.6(7.0) ± 0.2 × 109 L⊙ Mpc−3. This compares to a cluster 0.4–2.5 μm optical luminosity density of 5.0(20.0) × 109 L⊙ Mpc−3, some 3.2(2.9) times larger than the far‐infrared. A ‘typical’ photon originates from an optical depth of 0.4 ± 0.1. Most of our sample galaxies are well fitted by a single modified blackbody (β= 2), leading to a mean dust mass of log  MDust= 7.31 M⊙ and temperature of 20.0 K. We also derive both stellar and atomic hydrogen masses from which we calculate mean values for the star‐to‐gas (atomic) and gas (atomic)‐to‐dust mass ratios of 15.1 and 58.2, respectively. Using our derived dust, atomic gas and stellar masses, we estimate cluster mass densities of 8.6(27.8) × 106, 4.6(13.9) × 108 and 7.8(29.7) × 109 M⊙ Mpc−3 for dust, atomic gas and stars, respectively. These values are higher than those derived for field galaxies by factors of 39(126), 6(18) and 34(129), respectively. In the above, the luminosity/mass densities are given using the whole sample with the values in brackets using just those galaxies that lie between 17 and 23 Mpc. We provide a data table of flux densities in all the Herschel bands for all 78 bright Virgo Cluster galaxies.

We present an analysis of the dust and gas in Andromeda, using Herschel images sampling the entire far-infrared peak. We fit a modified-blackbody model to ∼4000 quasi-independent pixels with spatial resolution of ∼140 pc and find that a variable dust-emissivity index (β) is required to fit the data. We find no significant long-wavelength excess above this model suggesting there is no cold dust component. We show that the gas-to-dust ratio varies radially, increasing from ∼20 in the center to ∼70 in the star-forming ring at 10 kpc, consistent with the metallicity gradient. In the 10 kpc ring the average β is ∼1.9, in good agreement with values determined for the Milky Way (MW). However, in contrast to the MW, we find significant radial variations in β, which increases from 1.9 at 10 kpc to ∼2.5 at a radius of 3.1 kpc and then decreases to 1.7 in the center. The dust temperature is fairly constant in the 10 kpc ring (ranging from 17-20 K), but increases strongly in the bulge to ∼30 K. Within 3.1 kpc we find the dust temperature is highly correlated with the 3.6 µm flux, suggesting the general stellar population in the bulge is the dominant source of dust heating there. At larger radii, there is a weak correlation between the star formation rate and dust temperature. We find no evidence for 'dark gas' in M31 in contrast to recent results for the MW. Finally, we obtained an estimate of the CO X-factor by minimising the dispersion in the gas-to-dust ratio, obtaining a value of (1.9 ± 0.4) × 10 20 cm −2 [K kms −1 ] −1 .

We present new Herschel photometric and spectroscopic observations of Supernova 1987A, carried out in 2012. Our dedicated photometric measurements provide new 70 µm data and improved imaging quality at 100 and 160 µm compared to previous observations in 2010. Our Herschel spectra show only weak CO line emission, and provide an upper limit for the 63 µm [O i] line flux, eliminating the possibility that line contaminations distort the previously estimated dust mass. The far-infrared spectral energy distribution (SED) is well fitted by thermal emission from cold dust. The newly measured 70 µm flux constrains the dust temperature, limiting it to nearly a single temperature. The far-infrared emission can be fitted by 0.5±0.1 M of amorphous carbon, about a factor of two larger than the current nucleosynthetic mass prediction for carbon. The observation of SiO molecules at early and late phases suggests that silicates may also have formed and we could fit the SED with a combination of 0.3 M of amorphous carbon and 0.5 M of silicates, totalling 0.8 M of dust. Our analysis thus supports the presence of a large dust reservoir in the ejecta of SN 1987A. The inferred dust mass suggests that supernovae can be an important source of dust in the interstellar medium, from local to high-redshift galaxies.