Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Dec 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006aas...209.9309s&link_type=abstract
2007 AAS/AAPT Joint Meeting, American Astronomical Society Meeting 209, #93.09; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, V
Mathematics
Logic
Scientific paper
Determining the dependence of mass-loss as a function of stellar parameters (temperature, luminosity, metallicity) during late stellar evolution is of profound importance in astrophysics. The Galactic Bulge (GB) is an ideal laboratory for determining this dependence, providing a very large sample of stars all essentially at the same distance, in contrast to nearby stars which form a much more inhomogeneous population. The GB is also an important dynamical and morphological component of our Galaxy, offering an environment distinct from the Galactic disk, for the study of stellar populations, stellar evolution and the mass-loss processes which accompany and in the end, control late stellar evolution.
Here we present results from a small Spitzer program in which we observed 7 small ( 0.1 deg2) selected fields within, and in the vicinity of, the Nuclear Bulge (central 1 degree of the GB) with Spitzer's IRAC & MIPS (at 24 micron) instruments, predominantly along a radial vector inclined by 15 degrees to the minor axis of the Bulge, extending to a distace of 4 degrees from the Galactic Center. Our preliminary results dramatically demonstrate Spitzer's ability to quickly probe large populations of Bulge stars (> 20,000) down to unprecedentedly low mass-loss rates (< few x 10-10 Msun yr-1 -roughly a factor 20 lower than that achieved by an earlier study with ISO (ISOGAL: Omont et al. 2003, A&A, 403, 975). The increased sensitivity of Spitzer allows us to probe mass-loss on the red giant branch down to luminosities of 100 Lsun, and determine mass-loss rates much more accurately at the lower end of the range. Our study will ultimately result in a significantly more reliable and precise dependence of the mass-loss rate on fundamental stellar parameters.
Blommaert Joris
Glass I. I.
Groenewegen Martin
Kraemer Karl
Morris Marita
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