Dust Content of Virgo Star-Forming Dwarf Galaxies

Abstract

We investigate the dust properties of a small sample of Virgo cluster dwarf galaxies drawn from the science demonstration phase data set of the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey (HeViCS). These galaxies have low metallicities (7:8 < 12 C log.O=H/ < 8:3) and star formation rates <0.1 Mˇyr 1 . We measure the spectral energy distribution (SED) from 100 to 500 m and derive dust temperatures and masses. The SEDs are fitted by a cool component with T < 20 K, implying dust masses around 10 5 Mˇand dust-to-gas ratios (D) within the range 10 3 -10 2 .