The Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey . VII. Dust in cluster dwarf elliptical galaxies

We use the science demonstration phase data of the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey to search for dust emission of early-type dwarf galaxies in the central regions of the Virgo cluster as an alternative way of identifying the interstellar medium. We present the first possible far-infrared detection of cluster early-type dwarf galaxies: VCC 781 and VCC 951 are detected at the 10σ level in the SPIRE 250 μm image. Both detected galaxies have dust masses of the order of 10⁵ M_⊙ and average dust temperatures ≈20 K. The detection rate (less than 1%) is quite high compared to the 1.7% detection rate for Hi emission, considering that dwarfs in the central regions are more Hi deficient. We conclude that the removal of interstellar dust from dwarf galaxies resulting from ram pressure stripping, harassment, or tidal effects must be as efficient as the removal of interstellar gas.

Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.