Dusty Evolved Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud

Details Dusty Evolved Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud Dusty Evolved Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud

Sep 2004

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004sptz.prop.3277e&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #3277

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We propose to use the Spitzer Space Telescope to examine the spectral properties of the dust around evolved stars in the low-metallicity environment of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) and determine how the dust differs from the dust produced in more metal-rich environments. Observations with the IRS will enable us to address a number of issues and predictions related to fundamentally important questions of how the chemical and optical properties of dust in low-metallicity galaxies in the distant universe differ from the Milky Way. Among the effects we expect to see are: a reduction of the relative strength of the 11.3 um SiC feature and the 26-30 um MgS feature in spectra from carbon stars; the first detection of Fe-rich crystalline silicates in a circumstellar environment by looking for shifts in the positions of crystalline silicate features in OH/IR stars; an enhancement in the strength of the 13 um feature and related dust features at 20 and 28 um in spectra produced in optically thin oxygen-rich dust shells. These observations will also help refine the use of JHK and mid-infrared photometry to determine the chemistry of circumstellar dust shells in extragalactic environments. Our increased confidence from IRS spectra in spectral/chemical identifications based on photometric colors will give the astronomical community a powerful tool to probe the properties of low-metallicity galaxies in the early universe with the Spitzer Space Telescope.

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