Cosmography with the Herschel ATLAS and other Herschel Surveys

Steve Eales (Cardiff U.)

I will describe recent results from several Herschel surveys, in particular the HELGA survey of M31 and the Herschel ATLAS. We have used the HELGA observations to map the star formation and the dust and to search for CO-dark gas in the Andromeda galaxy, the nearest big spiral to the Milky Way. We have found evidence that the properties of the dust in Andromeda vary with distance from the centre of the galaxy. The Herschel ATLAS is the largest Herschel open-time project, consisting of a survey in five infrared and submillimetre bands of 550 square degrees. I will describe evidence from H-ATLAS for recent cosmological evolution in the galaxy population, the use of H-ATLAS to investigate Planck point sources, and recent observations of the gravitational lenses detected in the survey. I will finish by describing the prospects for a 1000-lens cosmographic project based on H-ATLAS and for the scientific use of the H-ATLAS data by astronomers outside the H-ATLAS team.