Research on stellar evolution at the Instituut voor Sterrenkude focuses on stars with a dusty circumstellar environment. These include young stellar objects, where the circumstellar material is a relic of the star formation process, and evolved objects where the circumstellar dust was ejected during previous (or sometimes current) heavy mass-loss episodes. This research is embedded in an already long-standing and fruitful collaboration with Dutch colleagues mainly from Amsterdam and Groningen but also Leiden and Utrecht. Since the ultraviolet and optical radiation of the stellar photosphere is partly or sometimes almost completely extinct by the circumstellar dust around these objects, they are typical infrared (IR) sources. The optically bright ones can, however, also be studied in the ultraviolet and optical and present exceptional circumstances where photospheric and circumstellar physical and chemical conditions can be studied over a large spectral interval. A multispectral approach is therefore strongly emphasized in our observational studies for which we use state-of-the art large telescopes and instruments both ground-based and space-born. For detailed monitoring programmes we use the Mercator telescope of the institute and its twin telescope at ESO operated by our Swiss collaborators. The research on the institute is versatile and includes detailed photospherical chemical studies based on optical high-resolution spectra; detailed modeling of cool stellar photosperes; modeling of the spectral energy distribution; monitoring of variable phenomena; high spatial resolution observations of the circumstellar environment with interferometry; AGB evolution modelling; Galactic structure as traced by AGB stars; influence of binarity on stellar evolution and detailed study of the chemical and physical properties of circumstellar molecules and dust grains.
People involved
Christoffel Waelkens Hans Van Winckel Joris Blommaert Bram Acke Leen Decin Pierre Royer Bart Vandenbussche Tijl Verhoelst Eva Bauwens Clio Gielen
Links
The Mercator Telescope at La Palma
The Euler Telescope / CORALIE spectrograph at La Silla, Chile
The European Southern Observatory (ESO)
ESA's Infrared Space Observatory
ESA's Herschel Space Observatory
