Cold dust in late-type Virgo Cluster galaxies

We have statistically analyzed the spatially integrated far-infrared (FIR) emissions of the complete volumeand luminosity-limited sample of late-type (later than S0) Virgo cluster galaxies measured using the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) by Tuffs et al. (2002) in bands centered on 60, 100 & 170μm. 30 out of 38 galaxies detected at all three wavelengths contain a cold dust emission component, present within all morphological types of late-type systems ranging from early giant spirals to Blue Compact Dwarfs (BCDs), and which could not have been recognized by IRAS. We fitted the data with a superposition of two modified grey-body functions, physically identified with a localized warm dust emission component associated with HII regions (whose temperature was constrained to be 47K), and a diffuse emission component of cold dust. The cold dust temperatures were found to be broadly distributed, with a median of 18K, Max Planck Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany Research Associate, The Astronomical Institute of the Romanian Academy, Str. Cuţitul de Argint 5, Bucharest, Romania The Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, 813 Santa Barbara Str., Pasadena, 91101 California, USA