AN INFRARED CENSUS OF DUST IN NEARBY GALAXIES WITH SPITZER (DUSTINGS). I. OVERVIEW
- Observational Cosmology Laboratory, Code 665, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
- Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy, 116 Church Street SE, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455 (United States)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, N6A 3K7 (Canada)
- IAASARS, National Observatory of Athens, GR-15236 Penteli (Greece)
- STScI, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
- Royal Observatory of Belgium, Ringlaan 3, B-1180 Brussels (Belgium)
- Laboratoire Lagrange, UMR7293, Univ. Nice Sophia-Antipolis, CNRS, Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, F-06300 Nice (France)
- ESA—European Space Astronomy Centre, Apdo. de Correo 78, E-28691 Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid (Spain)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011 (United States)
- Astronomy Department, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-6801 (United States)
- Astrophysics Group, Lennard-Jones Laboratories, Keele University, Staffordshire ST5 5BG (United Kingdom)
- Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, Alan Turing Building, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL (United Kingdom)
Nearby resolved dwarf galaxies provide excellent opportunities for studying the dust-producing late stages of stellar evolution over a wide range of metallicity (–2.7 ≲ [Fe/H] ≲ –1.0). Here, we describe DUSTiNGS (DUST in Nearby Galaxies with Spitzer): a 3.6 and 4.5 μm post-cryogen Spitzer Space Telescope imaging survey of 50 dwarf galaxies within 1.5 Mpc that is designed to identify dust-producing asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars and massive stars. The survey includes 37 dwarf spheroidal, 8 dwarf irregular, and 5 transition-type galaxies. This near-complete sample allows for the building of statistics on these rare phases of stellar evolution over the full metallicity range. The photometry is >75% complete at the tip of the red giant branch for all targeted galaxies, with the exception of the crowded inner regions of IC 10, NGC 185, and NGC 147. This photometric depth ensures that the majority of the dust-producing stars, including the thermally pulsing AGB stars, are detected in each galaxy. The images map each galaxy to at least twice the half-light radius to ensure that the entire evolved star population is included and to facilitate the statistical subtraction of background and foreground contamination, which is severe at these wavelengths. In this overview, we describe the survey, the data products, and preliminary results. We show evidence for the presence of dust-producing AGB stars in eight of the targeted galaxies, with metallicities as low as [Fe/H] = –1.9, suggesting that dust production occurs even at low metallicity.
- OSTI ID:
- 22340113
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Supplement Series, Vol. 216, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0067-0049
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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