A Study of External Galaxies Detected by COBE-DIRBE

Abstract

A comparison of the COBE, Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment (DIRBE) all-sky survey with the locations of known galaxies in the IRAS Catalog of Extragalactic Objects and the Center for Astrophysics Catalog of Galaxies led to the detection of as many as 56 galaxies. In this paper, we present the photometric analysis of these detections and an analysis of their dust properties. The sample is dominated by late-type spirals and active galaxies, and their far-IR continuua between 25-240 microns suggest a single dust component dominating the far-IR emission. We show that for the spirals, T(dust)= 27.6 K, and for the active galaxies, T(dust) = 35.5 K. Estimates of the ratio of the mass of the dust component detected at T(dust) = 20 - 30 K to a hypothetical component with T(dust) = 15 K provide modest constraints to the Very Cold Dust (VCD) component present in the galaxies detected at 140 and 240 microns. VCD components with less than times the mass of the 20-30 K dust are consistent with all of the upper limits.