Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Distance Estimates To Evolved Stars Using Infrared Emission And Verification And Validation Of The Plasma Code Empire, Brandon M. Medina

Physics & Astronomy ETDs

Gaining insight into the structure and dynamics of the Milky Way is important for understanding the universe on a large scale. Evolved stars on the Asymptotic Giant Branch are useful for studying the Milky Way because their emission is peaked in the infrared, where interstellar extinction effects are not as dominant. To further understand the physical properties of these objects like luminosity and investigate the Galaxy's structure, we need distance estimates. Obtaining distance estimates for these evolved stars via trigonometric parallax measurements is time-consuming, so infrared surveys studying Asymptotic Giant Branch stars can benefit from other distance estimate methods. In …

Infrared Properties Of Stars In The Bulge Asymmetries And Dynamical Evolution Survey, Eddie Hilburn

Physics & Astronomy ETDs

The Bulge Asymmetries and Dynamical Evolution (BAaDE) survey is an SiO maser survey of 28,062 infrared-selected evolved stars primarily in the Galactic plane. By cross-matching the BAaDE target sources with nine different infrared catalogs, we have constructed a catalog with wavelength coverage from 0.71 to 80 m. Using this catalog, we fit the data for each source to a model spectral energy distribution (SED) generated with the radiation transport program DUSTY in order to obtain characteristics such as bolometric flux, source effective temperature, and the optical depth of the circumstellar envelope.

The overall goal of the BAaDE survey is to …