Center for Astrophysics Research and Technologies Seminar Series
BAaDE's perspective on populations of evolved stars in the Galaxy
Presented by Megan Lewis (UNM)
The BAaDE (Bulge Asymmetries and Dynamical Evolution) project is the largest ever SiO maser survey of the Galactic Plane. About 20,000 sources have been observed for maser emission and data reduction is well underway. The name-sake goal of the project is to collect line-of-sight velocities for all the detected masers in the sample to probe Galactic dynamics. However, the survey is also a large sample of infrared sources with which to explore the different evolved stellar populations within the Milky Way. So far we can discern three distinct groups in the BAaDE sample: the main group containing oxygen-rich, evolved stars with a high SiO maser detection rate, a much smaller population of carbon-rich evolved stars, and finally a group of what likely consists of young stellar objects with no maser emission. I will talk about how we can further characterize these groups utilizing infrared data, allowing for a more fine-tuned understanding of how the stellar properties change as a function of position and/or kinematical population in the Galaxy. Examples of how this information will be used include metallicity gradients and mass-return to the interstellar medium from evolved stars.
2:00 pm, Thursday, September 13, 2018
PAIS-2540, PAIS
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