KINGFISH—Key Insights on Nearby Galaxies: A Far-Infrared Survey withHerschel: Survey Description and Image Atlas1
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abstract
The KINGFISH project (Key Insights on Nearby Galaxies: a Far-Infrared Survey
with Herschel) is an imaging and spectroscopic survey of 61 nearby (d < 30 Mpc)
galaxies, chosen to cover a wide range of galaxy properties and local
interstellar medium (ISM) environments found in the nearby Universe. Its broad
goals are to characterize the ISM of present-day galaxies, the heating and
cooling of their gaseous and dust components, and to better understand the
physical processes linking star formation and the ISM. KINGFISH is a direct
descendant of the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey (SINGS), which
produced complete Spitzer imaging and spectroscopic mapping and a comprehensive
set of multi-wavelength ancillary observations for the sample. The Herschel
imaging consists of complete maps for the galaxies at 70, 100, 160, 250, 350,
and 500 microns. The spectal line imaging of the principal atomic ISM cooling
lines ([OI]63um, [OIII]88um, [NII]122,205um, and [CII]158um) covers the
subregions in the centers and disks that already have been mapped in the
mid-infrared with Spitzer. The KINGFISH and SINGS multi-wavelength datasets
combined provide panchromatic mapping of the galaxies sufficient to resolve
individual star-forming regions, and tracing the important heating and cooling
channels of the ISM, across a wide range of local extragalactic ISM
environments. This paper summarizes the scientific strategy for KINGFISH, the
properties of the galaxy sample, the observing strategy, and data processing
and products. It also presents a combined Spitzer and Herschel image atlas for
the KINGFISH galaxies, covering the wavelength range 3.6 -- 500 microns. All
imaging and spectroscopy data products will be released to the Herschel user
generated product archives.
