We use the published photometry and spectroscopy of 22 galaxies in the Herschel Reference Survey to determine that the value of the dust mass absorption coefficient \kappa _ { d } at a wavelength of 500 µm is \kappa _ { 500 } = 0.051 ^ { +0.070 } _ { -0.026 } { m ^ { 2 } kg ^ { -1 } } .
We do so by taking advantage of the fact that the dust-to-metals ratio in the interstellar medium of galaxies appears to be constant .
We argue that our value for \kappa _ { d } supersedes that of – who pioneered this approach for determining \kappa _ { d } – because we take advantage of superior data , and account for a number of significant systematic effects that they did not consider .
We comprehensively incorporate all methodological and observational contributions to establish the uncertainty on our value , which represents a marked improvement on the oft-quoted ‘ order-of-magnitude ’ uncertainty on \kappa _ { d } .
We find no evidence that the value of \kappa _ { d } differs significantly between galaxies , or that it correlates with any other measured or derived galaxy properties .
We note , however , that the availability of data limits our sample to relatively massive ( 10 ^ { 9.7 } < { M _ { \star } } < 10 ^ { 11.0 } { M _ { \odot } } ) , high metallicity ( 8.61 < [ 12 + { log } _ { 10 } \frac { O } { H } ] < 8.86 ) galaxies ; future work will allow us to investigate a wider range of systems .