Dust lanes

 

Dust lanes are common in those ETGs where molecular (CO) has has been detected. They may indicate a past or on-going merger induced star-formation activity. Thanks to the exquisite image quality of MegaCam, and spatial resolution, even  dust lanes clearly show up against the stellar halo.

Dust lanes in a nutshell


  1. • Shape: filamentary, narrow

  2. • Surface brightness: not relevant

  3. • Number: usually multiple

  4. • Color: red against the stellar background


Examples of prominent, extended (left) or faint, narrow and nuclear dust lanes in ETGs from the MATLAS imaging database.