Cloud populations versus galactic environment in NGC 4689, NGC 628, NGC 1566 and NGC 4321

Faustino Vieira, Helena, Duarte Cabral, Ana ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5259-4774, Smith, Matthew W.L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3532-6970, Colombo, Dario, Davis, Timothy A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4932-9379 and Bazzi, Zein 2025. Cloud populations versus galactic environment in NGC 4689, NGC 628, NGC 1566 and NGC 4321. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 10.1093/mnras/staf411

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Abstract

The study of molecular clouds in galaxies beyond the Local Group is limited by the need to efficiently sample diverse galactic environments across galactic discs, typically resulting in a loss of resolution. Using a high-resolution dust extinction technique, we image the dust (and gas) of 4 nearby galaxies (<18 Mpc; NGC 4689, NGC 628, NGC 1566, and NGC 4321) with resolutions between 5–9 pc. We present catalogues of spatially-resolved clouds for these galaxies, with which we investigate whether different galactic environments and morphologies have a significant impact on observed cloud properties. We find no systematic differences in cloud size, aspect ratio, or morphology with galactic environment or radius. We do find changes in cloud masses/surface densities between the centres and discs of galaxies, with clouds in centres typically displaying higher values of mass/surface density. Furthermore, we find distinct distributions of cloud surface densities across the bars of NGC 1566 and NGC 4321. Differences between the arm and inter-arm populations are more subtle, with some galaxies in the sample having much higher cloud masses/surface densities in their spiral arms, and other galaxies showing fairly similar arm/inter-arm distributions. These results suggest that, even within this small sample of galaxies, not all spiral arms and bars seem to behave and affect the interstellar medium equally. Therefore, performing a qualitative environment analysis, where clouds of different galaxies are all binned together under the same visual environmental classification, leads to the loss of information on interesting property variations which in turn demonstrate the impact of the underlying dynamics.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	In Press
Schools:	Schools > Physics and Astronomy
Additional Information:	License information from Publisher: LICENSE 1: URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, Start Date: 2025-03-13
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
ISSN:	0035-8711
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	24 March 2025
Last Modified:	24 Mar 2025 16:00
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/177127

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