VERITAS Very High Energy Gamma-ray Observations of Galaxies

Remarkable progress has been made in very high energy (VHE; E >= 100 GeV) gamma-ray astrophysics in the last decade. The VHE source catalog has increased tenfold, with a wide variety of source classes, and includes more than 45 extragalactic objects. Currently, the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) has made observations of numerous source candidates, both galactic and extragalactic, including more than 100 galaxies. The last 18 months of observations are especially noteworthy as they have been completed in a new array configuration, following the relocation of one of the four 12-meter telescopes. This new configuration has yielded a significant increase in the VERITAS sensitivity to gamma-ray sources above 100 GeV, resulting in several new source detections in the first few months of operations alone. To date, the VERITAS extragalactic source catalog includes various blazars, the radio galaxy M87 and the starburst galaxy M82. Highlights from the VERITAS extragalactic observation program are summarized here.