Journal article
A POINT-SOURCE SURVEY OF M31 WITH THE SPITZER SPACE TELESCOPE
Jeremy Mould, Pauline Barmby, Karl Gordon, SP Willner, MLN Ashby
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL | IOP PUBLISHING LTD | Published : 2008
DOI: 10.1086/591844
Abstract
We explore the stellar population of M31 in a Spitzer Space Telescope survey utilizing IRAC and MIPS observations. Red supergiants are the brightest objects seen in the infrared; they are a prominent evolutionary phase. Due to their circumstellar envelopes, many of these radiate the bulk of their luminosity at IRAC wavelengths and do not stand out in the near-infrared or optically. Going fainter, we see large numbers of luminous asymptotic giant branch stars (AGB), many of which are known long-period variables. Relative to M33 the AGB carbon star population of M31 appears sparse, but this needs to be spectroscopically confirmed. © 2008. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
Grants
Funding Acknowledgements
This work is based on observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under a contract with NASA. Support for this work was provided by NASA through an award issued by JPL/Caltech. This work makes use of 2MASS data products, a joint project of the University of Massachusetts and IPAC/Caltech, funded by NASA and NSF. In addition to DAOPHOT, this research has made use of IRAF, which is distributed by NOAO. NOAO is operated by AURA under a cooperative agreement with NSF.