English

Gas in Galaxies

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2025-04-14 v1

Abstract

In this chapter, we give an overview of the major components of the interstellar medium (ISM) in galaxies at a level appropriate for upper level undergraduates or beginning graduate students. We discuss the major constituents of the the ISM in present-day star forming galaxies and summarize common methods to observe these components. We also review basic aspects of ISM structure accessible to extragalactic observations. Finally, we describe variations in ISM content and star-formation activity among local universe galaxies.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2504.08103,
  title  = {Gas in Galaxies},
  author = {Adam K. Leroy and Alberto D. Bolatto},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2504.08103},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

18 pages, 6 figures. This is a pre-print of a chapter for the Encyclopedia of Astrophysics (edited by I. Mandel, section editor S. McGee) to be published by Elsevier as a Reference Module

R2 v1 2026-06-28T22:54:13.253Z