We introduce the Local Volume Legacy (LVL) --- a Spitzer Cycle 4 IRAC and MIPS Legacy survey of a complete sample of 258 galaxies within 11 Mpc. The broad goal of LVL is to provide critical insight into two of the primary processes that shape the growth of galaxies: star formation and its interaction with the interstellar medium. This goal will be achieved by investigating the spatially-resolved star formation, dust , and red stellar populations of galaxies that have been drawn from a statistically robust local sample, in which a full diversity of galaxy properties (e.g., luminosities, surface brightnesses, metallicities) are represented. Our sample includes: (i) all known galaxies inside a sub-volume bounded by 3.5 Mpc, and (ii) an unbiased sample of S-Irr galaxies within the larger, and more representative, 11 Mpc sphere. LVL will produce a multi-wavelength census of the Galactic neighborhood, extending to the faintest limits of the galactic luminosity function and exploiting the highest spatial resolution and absolute depth achievable with Spitzer. Our ancillary dataset includes H ![]() Principal science issues to be addressed by the LVL team include: constraining the physical mechanisms underlying dust heating and understanding correlations between FIR emission, dust content and global galaxy properties; establishing the primary factors which influence PAH emission and evaluating the robustness of PAH emission as a SFR indicator, particularly at low metallicities and high specific SFRs; probing the temporal variation of star formation as a function of global properties, with special focus on dwarf galaxies. | ![]() |
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