A Point-Source Survey of M31 with the Spitzer Space Telescope

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 lu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	The Astrophysical journal Vol. 687; no. 1; pp. 230 - 241
Main Authors:	Mould, Jeremy, Barmby, Pauline, Gordon, Karl, Willner, S. P, Ashby, M. L. N, Gehrz, R. D, Humphreys, Roberta, Woodward, Charles E
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Chicago, IL IOP Publishing 01-11-2008 University of Chicago Press
Subjects:	Astronomy Earth, ocean, space Exact sciences and technology Point sources galaxies: individual (M31) Galaxies Stellar content galaxies: stellar content
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	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.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23
ISSN:	0004-637X 1538-4357
DOI:	10.1086/591844