Infrared Identification of Forming Solar Systems in Other Galaxies Sweta Shah Ithaca College Advisor: Dr. Luke Keller Physics Department Small Magellanic Cloud Image credit: NASA/ESA
Dec 21, 2015
Infrared Identification of Forming Solar Systems in Other Galaxies
Sweta ShahIthaca College
Advisor: Dr. Luke Keller Physics Department
Small Magellanic CloudImage credit: NASA/ESA
Stars (AeBe?) in SMC
Spectral Energy Distribution & Disk Geometry (Malfait et al. 1998)
UV mm
What we Did Spitzer Survey of SMC
Small Magellanic CloudImage credit: NASA/ESA
Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC)
• Dwarf galaxy
• 60 kpc away (~1016 meters)
• low metallicity
Are they really HAeBe stars?
Colour Colour Diagram (de Wit et al. 2003)
Metallicity Effect in SMC
2MASS K-band Images (Spitzer Archives)
Spectral Energy Distributions (Shah and Keller)
ESHCs detected in the S3MC mid infrared survey
• Are these actually Herbig AeBe stars?
• Brightness of stars in metal poor environments should be higher (Lammers 1999, de Witt 2003)
• SMC Herbig AeBe candidates’ disks
• How different is the ESHC dust relative to the Galactic HAeBe stars?
• Can we characterize the gas in these disks?
Remaining Questions /
Issues
Submitted a Proposal for follow-up space-based observations - Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph in February 2007.
Also submitted Proposal for ground-based data – Gemini in March 2007.
On Going Work
Thanks([email protected])