The environment and characteristics of low redshift galaxies detected by the Herschel-ATLAS
astro-ph.CO
/ Authors
A. Dariush, L. Cortese, S. Eales, E. Pascale, M. W. L. Smith, L. Dunne, S. Dye, D. Scott, R. Auld, M. Baes
and 34 more authors
J. Bland-Hawthorn, S. Buttiglione, A. Cava, D. L. Clements, A. Cooray, G. DeZotti, S. Driver, J. Fritz, H. L. Gomez, A. Hopkins, R. Hopwood, R. J. Ivison, M. J. Jarvis, D. H. Jones, L. Kelvin, H. G. Khosroshahi, J. Liske, J. Loveday, S. Maddox, B. F. Madore, M. J. Michalowski, P. Norberg, S. Phillipps, M. Pohlen
/ Abstract
We investigate the ultraviolet and optical properties and environment of low redshift galaxies detected in the Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS) science demonstration data. We use the Sloan Digital Sky Survey seventh release and the Galaxy And Mass Assembly database to select galaxies with r_Petro < 19.0 mag in the redshift range 0.02 < z < 0.2 and look for their submillimeter counterparts in H-ATLAS. Our results show that at low redshift, H-ATLAS detects mainly blue/star-forming galaxies with a minor contribution from red systems which are highly obscured by dust. In addition we find that the colour of a galaxy rather than the local density of its environment determines whether it is detectable by H-ATLAS. The average dust temperature of galaxies that are simultaneously detected by both PACS and SPIRE is 25K \pm 4K, independent of environment. This analysis provides a glimpse of the potential of the H-ATLAS data to investigate the submillimeter properties of galaxies in the local universe.