Related papers: Imaging the circumstellar dust distribution around…
Using a revised version of the catalog of AGB stars by Suh & Kwon (2009), we present various infrared two-colour diagrams (2CDs) for 3003 O-rich, 1168 C-rich, 362 S-type and 35 silicate carbon stars in our Galaxy. For each object in the new…
Many asymptotic giant branch (AGB) and supergiant stars exhibit extended detached shells in the far-infrared, resembling rings or arcs. These structures have long been interpreted as the bow shock formed in the interface between the stellar…
This paper reports on computational evidence for the formation of cloud-like dust structures around C-rich AGB stars. This spatio-temporal structure formation process is caused by a radiative/thermal instability of dust forming gases as…
Convection and mass loss by stellar winds are two dynamical processes that shape asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars and their evolution. Observations and earlier 3D models indicate that giant convection cells cause high-contrast surface…
Detached shells are believed to be created during a thermal pulse, and constrain the time scales and physical properties of one of the main drivers of late stellar evolution. We aim at determining the morphology of the detached dust shells…
The results from a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) snapshot survey of post-AGB objects are shown. The aim of the survey is to complement existing HST images of PPN and to connect various types of nebulosities with physical and chemical…
The goal is to build up a simple dynamical model for the out-flowing circumstellar envelope around AGB stars in a wide binary system to explore the parameter dependence of the geometrical characteristics of column density patterns. An AGB…
In this contribution we give a progress report on our systematic study of a large sample of post-AGB stars. The sample stars were selected on the basis of their infrared colours and the selection criteria were tuned to discover objects with…
The AKARI and Spitzer satellites provided an unique opportunity to observe a variety of stars, which are considered as departing from the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) and have started their post-AGB evolution recently. Most of these stars…
In this work we present the results of a systematic search for diffuse bands (DBs, hereafter) in the circumstellar envelopes of a carefully selected sample of post-AGB stars. We concentrated on the analysis of 9 of the DBs most commonly…
It is now well established that FGK post-AGB stars that are surrounded by both hot and cold dust (as derived from the spectral energy distribution), are almost always part of a binary system with $100 < P_{orb} < 5000$~days. The properties…
Condensation of circumstellar dust begins with formation of molecular clusters close to the stellar photosphere. These clusters are predicted to act as condensation cores at lower temperatures and allow efficient dust formation farther away…
Understanding the formation of planetary nebulae remains elusive because in the preceding asymtotic giant branch (AGB) phase these stars are heavily enshrouded in an optically thick dusty envelope. To further understand the morphology of…
Dust is formed in the expanding atmosphere during late stages of stellar evolution. Dust influences the dynamics and thermodynamics of the stellar atmosphere by its opacity. The dust opacity depends both on the optical properties of the…
Stellar population synthesis (SPS) models are used to infer many galactic properties including star formation histories, metallicities, and stellar and dust masses. However, most SPS models neglect the effect of circumstellar dust shells…
[Abridged] AGB stars are significant contributors to the metal enrichment of the interstellar medium. In this paper, we adapted models from advanced RHD simulations as input for radiative transfer software to create synthetic observables. A…
Adaptive optics observations in the infrared (VLT/NACO, Kervella et al. 2014) and visible (VLT/SPHERE, Kervella et al. 2015) domains revealed that the nearby AGB star L2 Pup (d=64 pc) is surrounded by a dust disk seen almost edge-on.…
We present first preliminary results from AKARI/FIS pointed observations of post-AGB stars and planetary nebulae (PNe). A first analysis of the radial (azimuthally averaged) profile of the observed sources shows no evidence for excess…
While the first binary post-AGB stars were serendipitously discovered, the distinct characteristics of their Spectral Energy Distribution (SED) allowed us to launch a more systematic search for binaries. We selected post-AGB objects which…
We present near infrared broad band and polarimetric images of the compact star forming cluster AFGL437 obtained with the NICMOS instrument aboard HST. Our high resolution images reveal a well collimated bipolar reflection nebulosity in the…