Dust Content of Virgo Star-Forming Dwarf Galaxies

We investigate the dust properties of a small sample of Virgo cluster dwarf galaxies drawn from the science demonstration phase data set of the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey (HeViCS). These galaxies have low metallicities (\(7.8\,<\,12\,+\,\mathrm{log(O/H)}\,<\,8.3\)) and star formation rates \(\lesssim \)0.1 M⊙ yr−1. We measure the spectral energy distribution (SED) from 100 to 500 μm and derive dust temperatures and masses. The SEDs are fitted by a cool component with \(\mathrm{T} \lesssim 20\) K, implying dust masses around 105 M⊙ and dust-to-gas ratios (\(\mathcal{D}\)) within the range 10−3–10−2.