Why Galaxies Care about AGB Stars III: A Closer Look in Space and Time
Book subtitle
proceedings of a conference held at University Campus, Vienna, Austria, 28 July-1 August 2014
ISBN
9781583818787
ISBN (electronic)
9781583818794
Series
Astronomical Society of the Pacific conference series
Event
Why Galaxies Care about AGB Stars III
Pages (from-to)
85-89
Publisher
San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Organisations
Faculty of Science (FNWI) - Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy (API)
Abstract
Using Herschel Space Observatory, we observed isotopologues of H2O in extreme OH/IR stars. We detected strong H216O and H217O while the H218O lines are missing, contrary to the overall galactic oxygen abundance in the interstellar medium and the Sun, where 18O is more abundant than 17O. Theoretical stellar evolution suggests that 18O is being destroyed during the hot-bottom burning. This implies that these OH/IR stars come from a population of intermediate-mass stars which have an initial mass ≥ 5 M☉.