A panchromatic analysis of starburst galaxy M82: Probing the dust
  properties
  (Abridged) We combine NUV, optical and IR imaging of the nearby starburst
galaxy M82 to explore the properties of the dust both in the interstellar
medium of the galaxy and the dust entrained in the superwind. The three NUV
filters of Swift/UVOT enable us to probe in detail the properties of the
extinction curve in the region around the 2175A bump. The NUV colour-colour
diagram strongly rules out a Calzetti-type law, which can either reflect
intrinsic changes in the dust properties or in the star formation history
compared to starbursts well represented by such an attenuation law. We
emphasize that it is mainly in the NUV region where a standard Milky-Way-type
law is preferred over a Calzetti law. The age and dust distribution of the
stellar populations is consistent with the scenario of an encounter with M81 in
the recent 400 Myr. The radial gradients of the NUV and optical colours in the
superwind region support the hypothesis that the emission in the wind cone is
driven by scattering from dust grains entrained in the ejecta. The observed
wavelength dependence reveals either a grain size distribution $n(a)\propto
a^{-2.5}$, where $a$ is the size of the grain, or a flatter distribution with a
maximum size cutoff, suggesting that only small grains are entrained in the
supernovae-driven wind.
