IRS Follow-up of Sources in M33
Abstract
We are currently engaged in a Guaranteed Time Observation (GTO) program (PID 5) to obtain MIPS and IRAC maps of M33 that will provide a global perspective on star formation, stellar evolution, and chemical evolution in the interstellar medium in a spiral galaxy. Combined with ground-based observations, these maps will provide a unified set of images that relate the locations of chemical enrichment, gas available to form stars, star formation, and evolved stars. We are proposing here to perform IRS spectroscopy using all of the IRS modules to follow-up on five embedded compact HII clusters which are located at various distances ranging up to 3.5 kpc from the center of M33. The low-resolution data will be particularly useful in identifying broad-band solid-state features, while the high-resolution module observations will be used to measure the strength of fine-structure emission lines, providing a wealth of information on the excitation levels and electron densities in the targets, without the complicating effects of extinction that hampers optical studies of these highly-enshrouded objects. Our proposed observations will allow important new insight into how star formation environments change across the face of the spiral galaxy M33.
- Publication:
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Spitzer Proposal
- Pub Date:
- May 2006
- Bibcode:
- 2006sptz.prop30145H