Atacama Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (AtLAST) science: Gas and dust in nearby galaxies
Understanding the physical processes that regulate star formation and galaxy evolution are major areas of activity in modern astrophysics. Nearby galaxies offer unique opportunities to inspect interstellar medium (ISM), star formation (SF), radiative, dynamic and magnetic ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mover><mml:mi>B</mml:mi> <mml:mo>→</mml:mo></mml:mover> </mml:math> ) physics in great detail from sub-galactic (kpc) scales to sub-cloud (sub-pc) scales, from quiescent galaxies to starbursts, and from field galaxies to overdensities. In this case study, we discuss the major breakthroughs in this area of research that will be enabled by the Atacama Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (AtLAST), a proposed 50-m single-dish submillimeter telescope. The new discovery space of AtLAST comes from its exceptional sensitivity, in particular to extended low surface brightness emission, a very large 2° field of view, and correspondingly high mapping efficiency. This paper focuses on four themes which will particularly benefit from AtLAST: 1) the LMC and SMC, 2) extragalactic magnetic fields, 3) the physics and chemistry of the interstellar medium, and 4) star formation and galaxy evolution. With ~ 1000 - 2000 hour surveys each, AtLAST could deliver deep dust continuum maps of the entire LMC and SMC fields at parsec-scale resolution, high-resolution maps of the magnetic field structure, gas density, temperature and composition of the dense and diffuse ISM in ~ 100 nearby galaxies, as well as the first large-scale blind CO survey in the nearby Universe, delivering molecular gas masses for up to 10 <sup>6</sup> galaxies (3 orders of magnitude more than current samples). Through such observing campaigns, AtLAST will have a profound impact on our understanding of the baryon cycle and star formation across a wide range of environments.
Authors
- F. Kemper (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2743-8240)
- Sven Wedemeyer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5006-7540)
- P. Andreani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9493-0169)
- Mélanie Chevance (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5635-5180)
- Mark Booth (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8568-6336)
- Akhil Lasrado (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-7671-5754)
- Thomas J. Maccarone (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0976-4755)
- C. Cicone (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0522-6941)
- Luca Di Mascolo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3586-4485)
- Caroline Bot (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6118-2985)
- Alexander E. Thelen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8178-1042)
- Thomas Stanke (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5812-9232)
- Frank Bigiel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0166-9745)
- Pamela Klaassen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9443-0463)
- A. Saintonge (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4357-3450)
- Timothy A. Davis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4932-9379)
- Doug Johnstone (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6773-459X)
- Enrique López-Rodríguez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5357-6538)
- S. Viti (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8504-8844)
- Martin Cordiner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8233-2436)
- Tony Mroczkowski (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3816-5372)
- M. W. L. Smith (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3532-6970)
- A. Boselli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9795-6433)
- Daizhong Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9773-7479)
- E. van Kampen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6327-5154)
- Bendix Hagedorn (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-9551-4089)
- Minju Lee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2419-3068)
- Ann Mao
Institutions
- Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ES)
- Leiden University (NL)
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- Texas Tech University (US)
- Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics (CA)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Goddard Space Flight Center (US)
- European Southern Observatory (DE)
- University of Bonn (DE)
- University of Trieste (IT)
- University of Oslo (NO)
- University of Applied Sciences Leiden (NL)
- University of Victoria (CA)
- Aix-Marseille Université (FR)
- Heidelberg University (DE)
- Trieste Astronomical Observatory (IT)
- Observatoire astronomique de Strasbourg (FR)
- Purple Mountain Observatory (CN)
- International School of Trieste (IT)
- Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics (DE)
- Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (ES)
- Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (US)
- Kennedy Center (DK)
- Institut Català de Ciències del Clima (ES)
- Royal Observatory (GB)
- Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur (FR)
- Institute for Fundamental Physics of the Universe (IT)
- Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (DE)
- NEC (Germany) (DE)
- University College London (GB)
- UK Astronomy Technology Centre (GB)
- Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies (DE)
- Cardiff University (GB)
- Technical University of Denmark (DK)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Open Research Europe
- Published
- 2025-05-23
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.17459.2
- Primary Topic
- Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche
- Horizon 2020 Framework Programme
- HORIZON EUROPE Framework Programme