View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by CERN Document Server ApJS Accepted [21 Oct 2002] Circumnuclear Dust in Nearby Active and Inactive Galaxies. I. Data1 Paul Martini 2, Michael W. Regan 3 John S. Mulchaey 2, Richard W. Pogge4, ABSTRACT 1Based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope obtained at the the Space Tele- scope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Incorporated, under NASA contract NAS5-26555. 2Carnegie Observatories, 813 Santa Barbara St., Pasadena, CA 91101-1292,
[email protected],
[email protected] 3Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218,
[email protected] 4Department of Astronomy, Ohio State University, 140 W. 18th Ave., Columbus, OH 43210,
[email protected] –2– The detailed morphology of the interstellar medium (ISM) in the central kilo- parsec of galaxies is controlled by pressure and gravitation. The combination of these forces shapes both circumnuclear star formation and the growth of the cen- tral, supermassive black hole. We present visible and near-infrared Hubble Space Telescope images and color maps of 123 nearby galaxies that show the distribu- tion of the cold ISM, as traced by dust, with excellent spatial resolution. These observations reveal that nuclear dust spirals are found in the majority of active and inactive galaxies and they possess a wide range in coherence, symmetry, and pitch angle. We have used this large sample to develop a classification system for circumnuclear dust structures. In spite of the heterogeneous nature of the com- plete sample, we only find symmetric, two-arm nuclear dust spirals in galaxies with large scale bars and these dust lanes clearly connect to dust lanes along the leading edges of the large scale bars.