Meet the team
Key Insight on Nearby Galaxies: a Far-infrared Survey with Herschel
KINGFISH is an Herschel 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 multiwavelength ancillary observations for the sample. The Herschel imaging consists of complete maps for the galaxies at 70, 100, 160, 250, 350, and 500 μm. The spectral line imaging of the principal atomic ISM cooling lines ([OI]63 μm, [OIII]88 μm, [NII]122,205 μm, and [CII]158 μm) covers 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 website summarizes the scientific strategy for KINGFISH and provides data products released by the team to the astronomical community.THE LEGACY
The sample
Publications
Plots for astronomers
Maps
Catalogues
Outreach material
