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Thermal Infrared Survey of LMC, SMC and Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2016

H.U. Käufl
Affiliation:
European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschildstr. 2, D-85748 Garching bei München, Germany
E. Tolstoy
Affiliation:
European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschildstr. 2, D-85748 Garching bei München, Germany
G. Wiedemann
Affiliation:
European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschildstr. 2, D-85748 Garching bei München, Germany
C. Loup
Affiliation:
Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, 98bis, Boulevard Arago, F-75014 Paris, France
H. G. Reimann
Affiliation:
Universitäts-Sternwarte Jena, Schillergäßchen 2, D-07745 Jena, Germany
L.B.F.M. Waters
Affiliation:
Universiteit Amsterdam, Sterrenkundig Instituut Anton Pannekoek, Kruislaan 403, NL-1098 SJ Amsterdam, Netherlands
A. Zijlstra
Affiliation:
University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), Department of Physics, Astrophysics Group, P.O. Box 88, Manchester M60 1QD, United Kingdom

Abstract

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The ESO VLT with its suite of infrared instruments (e.g. ISAAC, VISIR) allows for an area-limited deep survey for infrared-bright point sources in nearby local group galaxies. Data in four colours can be collected: 3, 5, 10, and 20μm; the 10/20μm data can be complemented with TIMMI2, a new instrument presently under construction for ESO's 3.6m telescope on La Silla. The scientific result will be a complete catalogue of obscured Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars in the LMC, the SMC and the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy (SDG). Using mostly twilight time, such a survey can be done for an area of ≈ 100 □arcmin per year per galaxy. At 10μm the limiting flux is expected to be 2–3 orders of magnitude fainter than the IRAS point source catalogue. This catalogue would give the first coherent sample of AGB stars with precise distances and consequently absolute bolometric luminosities. It may lead to a substantially better understanding of the mass loss of AGB stars, an important, but as of today largely enigmatic phase of stellar evolution. As a byproduct many more IR-bright objects in the Magellanic Clouds, e.g. dust envelopes around normal stars, luminous blue variable stars (LBV) or compact obscured HII-regions, will be discovered. For the SDG no LBVs or YSOs are expected as it had no star formation for the past 5 Gyr.

Type
Part 5. Wider Implications and Future Prospects
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 1999 

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