The Relation Between the Gas, Dust and Total Mass in Edge-On Spiral Galaxies

AbstractEach component of a galaxy plays its own unique role in regulating the galaxy's evolution. In order to understand how galaxies form and evolve, it is therefore crucial to study the distribution and properties of each of the various components, and the links between them, both radially and vertically. The latter is only possible in edge-on systems. We present the HEROES project, which aims to investigate the 3D structure of the interstellar gas, dust, stars and dark matter in a sample of 7 massive early-type spiral galaxies based on a multi-wavelength data set including optical, NIR, FIR and radio data.