The Herschel Reference Survey (Boselli et al. 2010b) is a guaranteed time key project aimed at studying the physical properties of the interstellar medium (ISM) of 323 nearby galaxies, covered by multi-wavelength data. This volume limited, K-band selected sample is composed of galaxies spanning the whole range of morphological types (from ellipticals to late-type spirals) and environments (from the field to the centre of the Virgo Cluster). My PhD work consists in performing a precise submillimeter photometry of every galaxies of the survey, and conducting a statistical study on the ISM properties of nearby galaxies based on the analysis of their spectral energy distributions. To achieve this goal I fit the data with the models of Draine & Li (2007). The output of Draine & Li (2007) models are the intensity of the interstellar radiation field, the PAH abundance, the contribution of photodissociation regions, the total mass of dust. I study the relations between these outputs and the physical properties such as the stellar mass, the specific star formation rate, the metallicity or the morphological type. I will present a preliminary analysis of these relations leading to a better understanding of the processes at play in the ISM and provide new infrared sets of templates from 8 to 500 microns parameterized by all the physical parameters just cited. These templates calibrated on nearby galaxies will be a benchmark for the study of the ISM properties of high redshift galaxies.
Study of the physical properties of nearby galaxies seen by Herschel