| Issue |
EAS Publications Series
Volume 75-76, 2015
Conditions and Impact of Star Formation
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Page(s) | 87 - 92 | |
| Section | Star Formation in Disk Galaxies: Morphology, Structure, and Dynamics | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/eas/1575015 | |
| Published online | 20 May 2016 | |
R. Simon, R. Schaaf and J. Stutzki (eds)
EAS Publications Series, 75–76 (2015) 87-92
ISM Conditions for Star Formation in Low Metallicity Environments
1 CEA/DSM/IRFU/Service d'Astrophysique/AIM, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
2 Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, Center for Astronomy, University of Heidelberg, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
3 CEA/DSM/IRFU/Service d'Astrophysique/AIM & Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, CNRS, 91405 Orsay, France
How galaxies turn metals into dust and gas and eventual star formation is the crux to understanding the evolution of the cosmos. We find that the lowest metallicity star forming dwarf galaxies have much lower dust abundance than previously expected, compared to their total metals and gas reservoirs. Little dust, and challenging CO observations and relatively bright far-infrared fine structure lines, such as 158 μm [CII] and 88 μm [OIII] reveal the structure of the interstellar medium to be very porous to UV radiation, leaving dwarf galaxies with a significant filling factor of ionized gas, and photo dissociated envelopes. The infrared fine structure lines together provide a tool to quantify the important reservoir of molecular gas in dwarf galaxies not traced by CO: the CO dark gas component.
© EAS, EDP Sciences, 2016