Herschel and SCUBA-2 observations of dust emission in a sample of Planck cold clumps

Abstract

Context. Analysis of all-sky Planck submillimetre observations and the IRAS 100 μm data has led to the detection of a population of Galactic cold clumps. The clumps can be used to study star formation and dust properties in a wide range of Galactic environments. Aims. Our aim is to measure dust spectral energy distribution (SED) variations as a function of the spatial scale and the wavelength. Methods. We examined the SEDs at large scales using IRAS, Planck, and Herschel data. At smaller scales, we compared JCMT/SCUBA-2 850 μm maps with Herschel data that were filtered using the SCUBA-2 pipeline. Clumps were extracted using the Fellwalker method, and their spectra were modelled as modified blackbody functions. Results. According to IRAS and Planck data, most fields have dust colour temperatures T C ∼ 14-18 K and opacity spectral index values of β = 1.5-1.9. The clumps and cores identified in SCUBA-2 maps have T ∼ 13 K and similar β values. There are some indications of the dust emission spectrum becoming flatter at wavelengths longer than 500 μm. In fits involving Planck data, the significance is limited by the uncertainty of the corrections for CO line contamination. The fits to the SPIRE data give a median β value that is slightly above 1.8. In the joint SPIRE and SCUBA-2 850 μm fits, the value decreases to β ∼ 1.6. Most of the observed T-β anticorrelation can be explained by noise. Conclusions. The typical submillimetre opacity spectral index β of cold clumps is found to be ∼1.7. This is above the values of diffuse clouds, but lower than in some previous studies of dense clumps. There is only tentative evidence of a T-β anticorrelation and β decreasing at millimetre wavelengths.