ISO's Contribution to the Study of Clusters of Galaxies

Abstract

Starting with nearby galaxy clusters like Virgo and Coma, and continuing out to the furthest galaxy clusters for which ISO results have yet been published (z = 0.56), we discuss the development of knowledge of the infrared and associated physical properties of galaxy clusters from early IRAS observations, through the "ISO-era" to the present, in order to explore the status of ISO's contribution to this field. Relevant IRAS and ISO programmes are reviewed, addressing both the cluster galaxies and the still-very-limited evidence for an infrared-emitting intra-cluster medium. ISO made important advances in knowledge of both nearby and distant galaxy clusters, such as the discovery of a major cold dust component in Virgo and Coma cluster galaxies, the elaboration of the correlation between dust emission and Hubble-type, and the detection of numerous Luminous Infrared Galaxies (LIRGs) in several distant clusters. These and consequent achievements are underlined and described. We recall that, due to observing time constraints, ISO's coverage of higher-redshift galaxy clusters to the depths required to detect and study statistically significant samples of cluster galaxies over a range of morphological types could not be comprehensive and systematic, and such systematic coverage of distant clusters will be an important achievement of the Spitzer Observatory.

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