Issue |
A&A
Volume 584, December 2015
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A33 | |
Number of page(s) | 17 | |
Section | Stellar structure and evolution | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201526393 | |
Published online | 17 November 2015 |
Identification of dusty massive stars in star-forming dwarf irregular galaxies in the Local Group with mid-IR photometry⋆,⋆⋆
1
IAASARS, National Observatory of Athens,
15236
Penteli,
Greece
e-mail: britavskiy@astro.noa.gr; bonanos@astro.noa.gr
2
Section of Astrophysics, Astronomy and Mechanics, Department of
Physics, University of Athens, 15783
Athens,
Greece
3
ESO – European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the
Southern Hemisphere, Santiago de
Chile, Chile
4
Observational Cosmology Lab, Code 665, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center,
Greenbelt, MD
20771,
USA
5
Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics, School of Physics and
Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
55455,
USA
Received: 23 April 2015
Accepted: 5 October 2015
Context. Increasing the statistics of spectroscopically confirmed evolved massive stars in the Local Group enables the investigation of the mass loss phenomena that occur in these stars in the late stages of their evolution.
Aims. We aim to complete the census of luminous mid-IR sources in star-forming dwarf irregular (dIrr) galaxies of the Local Group. To achieve this we employed mid-IR photometric selection criteria to identify evolved massive stars, such as red supergiants (RSGs) and luminous blue variables (LBVs), by using the fact that these types of stars have infrared excess due to dust.
Methods. The method is based on 3.6 μm and 4.5 μm photometry from archival Spitzer Space Telescope images of nearby galaxies. We applied our criteria to four dIrr galaxies: Pegasus, Phoenix, Sextans A, and WLM, selecting 79 point sources that we observed with the VLT/FORS2 spectrograph in multi-object spectroscopy mode.
Results. We identified 13 RSGs, of which 6 are new discoveries, as well as two new emission line stars, and one candidate yellow supergiant. Among the other observed objects we identified carbon stars, foreground giants, and background objects, such as a quasar and an early-type galaxy that contaminate our survey. We use the results of our spectroscopic survey to revise the mid-IR and optical selection criteria for identifying RSGs from photometric measurements. The optical selection criteria are more efficient in separating extragalactic RSGs from foreground giants than mid-IR selection criteria, but the mid-IR selection criteria are useful for identifying dusty stars in the Local Group. This work serves as a basis for further investigation of the newly discovered dusty massive stars and their host galaxies.
Key words: stars: massive / stars: late-type / galaxies: individual: Sex A / supergiants
Based on observations made with ESO Telescopes at the La Silla Paranal Observatory under programme IDs 090.D-0009 and 091.D-0010.
Appendix A is available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org
© ESO, 2015
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.