Detections of Dust in the Outskirts of M31 and M33

Abstract

Abstract M31 and M33 serve as ideal places to study distributions of dust in the outskirts of spiral galaxies. In this Letter, using about 0.2 million stars selected from the LAMOST data and combining precise photometry and parallaxes from the Gaia DR2, we have constructed a two-dimensional foreground dust reddening map toward the M31 and M33 region (1112 ≤ gl ≤ 1362, −365 ≤ gb ≤ −165). The map has a typical spatial resolution of about 12′ and precision of 0.01 mag. The complex structure of dust clouds toward M31 is revealed. By carefully removing the foreground extinction from the dust reddening map of Schlegel et al., we thus have obtained a residual map to study dust distributions in the outskirts of M31 and M33. A large amount of dust is detected in the M31 halo out to a distance of over 100 kpc. Dust in the M31 disk is found to extend out to about 2.5 times its optical radius, with a distribution that is consistent with either an exponential disk with a scale length of 7.2 kpc or two disks with a scale length of 11.1 kpc within its optical radius and 18.3 kpc beyond its optical radius. Dust in the disk of M33 is also found to extend out to about 2.5 times its optical radius, its distribution beyond one optical radius is consistent with an exponential disk with a scale length of 5.6 kpc. Our results provide new clues to the distributions and cycling of dust in galaxies.