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The thermal emission of dust is one of the most important tracers of theinterstellar medium: multi-wavelength photometry in the far-infrared (FIR) andsubmillimeter (submm) can be fitted with a model, providing estimates of thedust mass. The fit results depend on the assumed value for FIR/submm opacity,which in most models - due to the scarcity, until recently, of experimentalmeasurements - is extrapolated from shorter wavelengths. Lab measurements ofdust analogues, however, show that FIR opacities are usually higher than thevalues used in models and depend on temperature, which suggests that dust massestimates may be biased. To test the extent of this bias, we createmulti-wavelength synthetic photometry for dusty galaxies at differenttemperatures and redshifts, using experimental results for FIR/submm dustopacity, then we fit the synthetic data using standard dust models. We findthat the dust masses recovered by typical models are overestimated by a factor2 to 20, depending on how the experimental opacities are treated. If theexperimental dust samples are accurate analogues of interstellar dust,therefore, current dust masses are overestimated by up to a factor 20. Theimplications for our understanding of dust, both Galactic and at high redshift,are discussed.

Systematic errors in dust mass determinations: Insights from laboratory opacity measurements