WISE Photometry of Galaxies within 10 Mpc

Abstract

For photometry of galaxies in the infrared that extend to very low surface brightnesses, it is necessary to observe with telescopes in space. WISE and NEOWISE provide sensitive all-sky access to mid-infrared flux from galaxies at 3.4mum (W1) and 4.6mum (W2) bands. This study is complemented by the availability of accurate Tip of the Red Giant Branch distances for a large fraction of the targets. In this work, photometry is assembled on a complete volume limited sample of galaxies between one and ten Mpc brighter than absolute magnitude -13 in the W1 band. Stellar masses are inferred from W1 fluxes and measured distances. While most of the galaxies are dwarfs, most of the stellar mass is concentrated in a small number of giants.