Related papers: Stellar dust production and composition in the Mag…
Stars in galaxies form in giant molecular clouds that coalesce when the atomic hydrogen is converted into molecules. There are currently two dominant models for what property of the galactic disk determines its molecular fraction: either…
We report the detection of oxygen-rich circumstellar envelopes in stars of the nearby (700 kpc) starburst galaxy IC 10. The star formation history and the chemical environment of this galaxy makes it an ideal target to observe dust…
The first 1.1 mm continuum survey toward the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) was performed using the AzTEC instrument installed on the ASTE 10-m telescope. This survey covered 4.5 deg$^2$ of the SMC with $1\sigma$ noise levels of $5-12$ mJy…
The Ks magnitude distribution of asymptotic giant branch stars provides important constraints on the spatial variation of metallicity and mean-age of the stellar population of galaxies. Here, I present results of the investigation of these…
Interstellar dust forms during stellar mass-loss events, occurring either during a star's giant phase or during supernova explosions. This PhD thesis provides an in-depth investigation into the theory of dust condensation and growth,…
The interstellar thick disks of galaxies contain not only gas, but significant quantities of dust. Most of our knowledge of extraplanar dust in disk galaxies comes from direct broadband optical imaging of these systems, wherein the dust is…
Interstellar dust spans a wide range in size distribution, ranging from ultrasmall grains of a few Angstroms to micrometer-size grains. While the presence of nanometer-size dust grains in the Galactic interstellar medium was speculated six…
A novel mechanism of the formation of compact dusty clouds in astrophysical environments is discussed. It is shown that the balance of collective forces operating in space dusty plasmas can result in the effect of dust self-confinement,…
Studies of the relationship between planetary nebula morphology and the evolution of the central stars has long suffered from uncertainties in distance determinations, and from the bias of interstellar absorption, that are typical for…
The Magellanic Clouds provide the ideal laboratory for the study of mass loss and molecule and dust formation in red giants as a function of luminosity and metal abundance. I present some recent observational work.
The study of planetary nebulae (PNe) offers the opportunity of evaluating the efficiency of the dust production mechanism during the very late asymptotic giant branch (AGB) phases. We study the relationship between the properties of PNe,…
Resolving the environments of massive stars is crucial for understanding their formation mechanisms and their impact on galaxy evolution. An important open question is whether massive stars found in diffuse regions outside spiral arms…
We use mid-infrared Spitzer spectroscopy and far-infrared Herschel photometry for a sample of twenty main sequence O9--B2 stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) with strong 24 micron excesses to investigate the origin of the mid-IR…
[Abridged] The stellar Initial Mass Function (IMF) suggests that sub-solar stars form in very large numbers. Most attractive places for catching low-mass star formation in the act are young stellar clusters and associations, still…
We perform a systematic study of evolutionary stages and stellar masses of young stellar objects (YSOs) in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) to investigate properties of star formation of the galaxy. There are 4825 sources in our YSO sample,…
New infrared spectra of 33 Galactic carbon stars from FORCAST on SOFIA reveal strong connections between stellar pulsations and the dust and molecular chemistry in their circumstellar shells. A sharp boundary in overall dust content, which…
Presence of dust in galaxies removes half or more of the stellar energy from the UV-optical budget of the Universe and has profound impact on our understanding of how galaxies evolve. Measures of opacity in local galaxies are reviewed…
Dust modeling is crucial to infer dust properties and budget for galaxy studies. However, there are systematic disparities between dust grain models that result in corresponding systematic differences in the inferred dust properties of…
(ABBREVIATED) Understanding the formation of stars in galaxies is central to much of modern astrophysics. In this review the relation between interstellar turbulence and star formation is discussed. Supersonic turbulence can provide support…
We study the morphological properties of mid-infrared selected galaxies at $1.0<z<1.7$ in the SMACS J0723.3-7327 cluster field, to investigate the mechanisms of galaxy mass assembly and structural formation at cosmic noon. We develop a new…