Multiband imaging observations of a prominent dust lane galaxy NGC 4370
  In this paper we present extinction properties of interstellar dust in a
prominent dust lane galaxy NGC 4370 based on the optical broad band (BVRI)
imaging observations taken from the Himalaya Chandra Telescope (HCT), Hanle and
the near-IR (J,H,K$_s$) images taken from the 2MASS archive. NGC 4370 belongs
to the Virgo cluster (VCC 0758) and form a non-interactive pair with NGC 4365
at 10$\arcmin$. NGC 4370 hosts a prominent dust lane running parallel to its
optical major axis and is extended almost up to 1\arcmin. The extinction curve
derived for NGC 4370 is found to run parallel to Galactic extinction curve,
implying that the properties of dust in NGC 4370 are identical to those of the
canonical grains in the Milky Way. The $R_V$ value is found to be equal to
2.85$\pm$0.05 and is consitent with the values reported for the dust lane
galaxies. The total dust content of NGC 4370 estimated using optical extinction
and IRAS flux densities are found to be equal to $4.4\times 10^4$ \msol and
$2.0\times 10^5$ \msol, respectively. As regard to the origin of dust and ISM
in this galaxy, the accumulated dust by this galaxy over its life-time is
insufficient to account for the detected mass by optical means, which in turn
imply that the ISM might have been acquired by the NGC 4370 through a merger
like event. An attempt is also made to study the apparent spatial
correspondence between the multiple phases of ISM, i.e., hot gas, warm gas and
dust in this galaxy by obtaining optical emission maps from narrow band imaging
and diffuse X-ray emission map obtained from the analysis of \emph{Chandra}
archival data. This analysis implies a physical connection between the dust and
warm gas in terms of their physical co-existence and common origin too.
