ScienceProblem: AGBstarCandidates

PrimaryActor

Astronomer

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ScienceGoal

Identifying distant candidate AGB stars (Asymptotic Giant Branch e.g. Mira/Red Super Giant stars)

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DataSets

IRAS, MSX and other IR surveys

OH and other maser surveys

Optical/IR data at more than one epoch

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ProblemDescription:

Studying AGB stars in distant parts of our Galaxy and nearby galaxies will help us to distinguish between effects of individual stellar evolution and galactic evolution of metallicity, on late stellar evolution. This in turn affects the use of these stars as distance indicators and how they enrich the ISM themselves, in particular the nature of the dust injected.

AGB candidates can be identified from IR colours, sometimes by optical/NIR variability (months/years) and by molecular bands in stellar spectra, but they can be very obscured, also by the presence of OH and other masers (if other evidence enables them to be distinguished from star-forming regions).

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CurrentSolution:

All IR/optical data needs to be de-redenned and the exact waveband and time of observations is needed, also the flux scale must be accurate.

Also check for confusing sources/misidentifications

Search IRAS PSC

Search other optical/IR catalogues/surveys, correct if necessary - need multi-wavelength and/or multi-epoch data to compare

Search maser surveys.

Corrections and cross-correlations done by user.

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VOSolution:^?

Standardisation of data performed by VO.

Multiple and conditional search criteria enabled.

Possible to search for serendipitous objects in the field of view of archived data.

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KeyReferences:

Schultheis, M. & Glass, I. S. 2001, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 327, Issue 4, pp. 1193-1200. Asymptotic giant branch variables in Baade's Windows

Le Bertre, T., Matsuura, M., Winters, J. M., Murakami, H., Yamamura, I., Freund, M., & Tanaka, M. 2001, Astronomy and Astrophysics, v.376, p.997-1010 (2001) Galactic mass-losing AGB stars probed with the IRTS. I.

Knauer, Timothy G., Ivezic, Zeljko, & Knapp, G. R. 2001, The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 552, Issue 2, pp. 787-792. Analysis of Stars Common to the IRAS and Hipparcos Surveys

Nowotny, W., Kerschbaum, F., Schwarz, H. E., & Olofsson, H. 2001, Astronomy and Astrophysics, v.367, p.557-565 (2001) A census of AGB stars in Local Group galaxies I. Photometry of a field in M 31

Davidge, T. J. 2000, The Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Volume 112, Issue 775, pp. 1177-1187. The Evolved Red Stellar Content of M32

Le Squeren, A. M., Sivagnanam, P., Dennefeld, M., & David, P. 1992, ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS V.254, NO. FEB(I), P. 133, 1992 A Complete Survey of OH / Infrared Objects from the IRAS LRS Sources Within a Domain of the Color Diagram

Te Lintel Hekkert, P., Versteege-Hensel, H. A., Habing, H. J., & Wiertz, M. 1989, Astronomy and Astrophysics Supplement Series (ISSN 0365-0138), vol. 78, no. 3, June 1989, p. 399-430. A catalogue of stellar 1612 MHz maser sources

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GoodStyle: Please add comments below. This area should be used for refinement of the above document. If you want to ask questions or start a dialogue with the author, please use (or create) a topic in the Science Problems Forum. For other ScienceProblems, refer to the ScienceProblemList.
Author: Once the refinements here and comments in the forum die down, perhaps you could rewrite the problem, incorporating the comments and refinements.

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This case is likely to be solvable by AstroGrid. Needed are which exact data sets are required. Does this need data held outside of AstroGrid archive sites.

-- NicholasWalton - 17 Apr 2002

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-- AnitaRichards - 01 Feb 2002