We present archival Spitzer IRS spectra of 19 luminous 8 micron selected sources in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). The object classes derived from these spectra and from an additional 24 spectra in the literature are compared with classifications based on 2MASS/MSX (J, H, K, and 8 micron) colors in order to test the "JHK8" classification scheme (Kastner et al. 2008). The IRS spectra confirm the classifications of 22 of the 31 sources that can be classified under the JHK8 system. The spectroscopic classification of 12 objects that were unclassifiable in the JHK8 scheme allow us to characterize regions of the color-color diagrams that previously lacked spectroscopic verification, enabling refinements to the JHK8 classification system. The results of these new classifications are consistent with previous results concerning the identification of the most infrared-luminous objects in the LMC. In particular, while the IRS spectra reveal several new examples of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars with O-rich envelopes, such objects are still far outnumbered by carbon stars (C-rich AGB stars). We show that Spitzer IRAC/MIPS color-color diagrams provide improved discrimination between red supergiants and oxygen-rich and carbon-rich asymptotic giant branch stars relative to those based on 2MASS/MSX colors. These diagrams will enable the most luminous IR sources in Local Group galaxies to be classified with high confidence based on their Spitzer colors. Such characterizations of stellar populations will continue to be possible during Spitzer's warm mission, through the use of IRAC [3.6]-[4.5] and 2MASS colors.
We present 3.6 and 4.5 um photometry for a set of 61 standard stars observed by Spitzer's Infrared Spectrograph (IRS). The photometry was obtained with the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) on Spitzer in order to help tie the calibration of IRAC and the IRS, which had been anchored to the calibration of the Multiband Infrared Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS). The wavelength range of the IRS data only slightly overlaps with the IRAC 4.5 um band and not at all with the 3.6 um band. Therefore, we generated synthetic spectra from spectral templates of stars with the same spectral types and luminosity clas…
We report the Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) observations of three evolved stars: IRAS 16456-3542, 18354-0638, and 23239+5754. The 9.9--37.2um Spitzer/IRS high resolution spectra of these three sources exhibit rich sets of enstatite-dominated crystalline silicate emission features. IRAS 16456-3542 is extremely rich in crystalline silicates, with >90% of its silicate mass in crystalline form, the highest to date ever reported for crystalline silicate sources.
Recent infrared spectroscopic observations have shown that proto-planetary nebulae (PPNs) are sites of active synthesis of organic compounds in the late stages of stellar evolution. This paper presents a study of Spitzer/IRS spectra for a sample of carbon-rich PPNs, all except one of which show the unidentified 21 micron emission feature. The strengths of the aromatic infrared band (AIB), 21 micron, and 30 micron features are obtained by decomposition of the spectra. The observed variations in the strengths and peak wavelengths of the features support the model that the newly synthesized organ…
We carried out a NIR variable star survey toward the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds using the InfraRed Survey Facility (IRSF) at Sutherland, South African Astronomical Observatory. This survey project was initiated in Dember 2000, and since then, we kept monitoring a total area of 3 square degrees along the LMC bar and also an area of 1 square degree around the center of the SMC, sufficiently large to do statistical analysis and to make complete catalog of variable red giants in the Magellanic Clouds. The detection limits (S/N=10) of the survey are 17.0, 16.5 and 15.5 at J, H and Ks, respec…
We present results of a sensitive Chandra X-ray observation and Spitzer mid-IR observations of the infrared cluster lying north of the NGC 2071 reflection nebula in the Orion B molecular cloud. We focus on the dense cluster core known as NGC 2071-IR which contains at least nine IR sources within a 40 x 40 arcsecond region. This region shows clear signs of active star formation including powerful molecular outflows, Herbig-Haro objects, and both OH and H2O masers. We use Spitzer IRAC images to aid in X-ray source identification and to determine YSO classes using mid-IR colors. Spitzer IRAC colo…
In this paper we derive the Spitzer IRAC band period-luminosity (P-L) relations for the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) Cepheids, by matching the Spitzer archival SAGE-SMC data with the OGLE-III SMC Cepheids. We find that the 3.6micron and 4.5micron band P-L relations can be better described using two P-L relations with a break period at log(P)=0.4: this is consistent with similar results at optical wavelengths for SMC P-L relations. The 5.8micron and 8.0micron band P-L relations do not extend to sufficiently short periods to enable a similar detection of a slope change at log(P)=0.4. The slopes …
As part of a mid-infrared spectroscopic survey of young stars with the Spitzer Space Telescope, an unclassified red emission line object was discovered. Based on its high ionization state indicated by the Spitzer spectrum, this object could either be a dusty Supernova Remnant (SNR) or a Planetary Nebula (PN). In this research note, the object is classified and the available spectroscopic data are presented to the community for further analysis. UV/optical/NIR spectra were obtained during the science verification run of the VLT/X-shooter. A large number of emission lines are identified allowing…
When studying the evolutionary stages of protostars that form in clusters, the role of any intracluster medium cannot be neglected. High foreground extinction can lead to situations where young stellar objects (YSOs) appear to be in earlier evolutionary stages than they actually are, particularly when using simple criteria like spectral indices. To address this issue, we have assembled detailed SED characterizations of a sample of 56 Spitzer-identified candidate YSOs in the clusters NGC 2264 and IC 348. For these, we use spectra obtained with the Infrared Spectrograph onboard the Spitzer Space…
K-band spectra are presented for a sample of 39 Spitzer IRS SAGE-Spec sources in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The spectra exhibit characteristics in very good agreement with their positions in the near infrared - Spitzer color-magnitude diagrams and their properties as deduced from the Spitzer IRS spectra. Specifically, the near infrared spectra show strong atomic and molecular features representative of oxygen-rich and carbon-rich asymptotic giant branch stars, respectively. A small subset of stars were chosen from the luminous and red extreme "tip" of the color magnitude diagram. These object…
Recently, we have discovered an error in our Monte-Carlo spectral fitting routine, more specifically where the errors on the fluxes were rescaled to get a reduced chi2 of 1. The rescaled errors were too big, resulting in too wide a range of good fits in our 100 step Monte-Carlo routine. This problem affects Figs. 7-9 and Tables A.1, A.2 in Gielen et al. (2008), Table 3 in Gielen et al. (2009a), and Table 4 in Gielen et al. (2009b). We corrected for this error and present the new values and errors in the tables below. The new values and errors nearly all fall within the old error range. Our bes…
We report on the λ = 5-36μm Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph spectra of 79 young stellar objects in the very young nearby cluster NGC 1333. NGC 1333's youth enables the study of early protoplanetary disk properties, such as the degree of settling as well as the formation of gaps and clearings. We construct spectral energy distributions (SEDs) using our IRS data as well as published photometry and classify our sample into SED classes. Using "extinction-free" spectral indices, we determine whether the disk, envelope, or photosphere dominates the spectrum. We analyze the dereddened spectra of object…
We present spectra of 13 T Tauri stars in the Taurus-Auriga star-forming region showing emission in Spitzer Space Telescope Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) 5-7.5 micron spectra from water vapor and absorption from other gases in these stars' protoplanetary disks. Seven stars' spectra show an emission feature at 6.6 microns due to the nu_2 = 1-0 bending mode of water vapor, with the shape of the spectrum suggesting water vapor temperatures > 500 K, though some of these spectra also show indications of an absorption band, likely from another molecule. This water vapor emission contrasts with the abs…
We explore the extent to which Spitzer IRS spectra taken at low spectral resolution can be used in quantitative studies of organic molecular emission from disks surrounding low mass young stars. We use Spitzer IRS spectra taken in both the high and low resolution modules for the same sources to investigate whether it is possible to define line indices that can measure trends in the strength of the molecular features in low resolution data. We find that trends in HCN emission strength seen in the high resolution data can be recovered in low resolution data. In examining the factors that influen…
The Magellanic clouds are uniquely placed to study the stellar contribution to dust emission. Individual stars can be resolved in these systems even in the mid-infrared, and they are close enough to allow detection of infrared excess caused by dust.We have searched the Spitzer Space Telescope data archive for all Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) staring-mode observations of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) and found that 209 Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) point sources within the footprint of the Surveying the Agents of Galaxy Evolution in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SAGE-SMC) Spitzer Legacy programm…
The crystalline silicates features are mainly reflected in infrared bands. The Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) collected numerous spectra of various objects and provided a big database to investigate crystalline silicates in a wide range of astronomical environments. We apply the manifold ranking algorithm to perform a systematic search for the spectra with crystalline silicates features in the Spitzer IRS Enhanced Products available. In total, 868 spectra of 790 sources are found to show the features of crystalline silicate. These objects are cross-matched with the SIMBAD database as well…
(Abridged) Dust particles evolve in size and lattice structure in protoplanetary disks, due to coagulation, fragmentation and crystallization, and are radially and vertically mixed in disks. This paper aims at determining the mineralogical composition and size distribution of the dust grains in disks around 58 T Tauri stars observed with Spitzer/IRS. We present a spectral decomposition model that reproduces the IRS spectra over the full spectral range. The model assumes two dust populations: a warm component responsible for the 10μm emission arising from the disk inner regions and a colder com…
We present a Spitzer IRS study of variability in 14 T Tauri stars in the Taurus and Chamaeleon star-forming regions. The sample is composed of transitional and pre-transitional objects which contain holes and gaps in their disks. We detect variability between 5-38 microns in all but two of our objects on timescales of 2-3 years. Most of the variability observed can be classified as seesaw behavior, whereby the emission at shorter wavelengths varies inversely with the emission at longer wavelengths. For many of the objects we can reasonably reproduce the observed variability using irradiated di…
We present the Spitzer Space Telescope Infrared Spectrograph spectrum of the Orion A protostar HOPS-68. The mid-infrared spectrum reveals crystalline substructure at 11.1, 16.1, 18.8, 23.6, 27.9, and 33.6 microns superimposed on the broad 9.7 and 18 micron amorphous silicate features; the substructure is well matched by the presence of the olivine end-member forsterite. Crystalline silicates are often observed as infrared emission features around the circumstellar disks of Herbig Ae/Be stars and T Tauri stars. However, this is the first unambiguous detection of crystalline silicate absorption …
We present new advances in the spectral extraction of point-like sources adapted to the Infrared Spectrograph onboard the Spitzer Space Telescope. For the first time, we created a super-sampled point spread function of the low-resolution modules. We describe how to use the point spread function to perform optimal extraction of a single source and of multiple sources within the slit. We also examine the case of the optimal extraction of one or several sources with a complex background. The new algorithms are gathered in a plugin called Adopt which is part of the SMART data analysis software.
Dust grains in the planet forming regions around young stars are expected to be heavily processed due to coagulation, fragmentation and crystallization. This paper focuses on the crystalline silicate dust grains in protoplanetary disks. As part of the Cores to Disks Legacy Program, we obtained more than a hundred Spitzer/IRS spectra of TTauri stars. More than 3/4 of our objects show at least one crystalline silicate emission feature that can be essentially attributed to Mg-rich silicates. Observational properties of the crystalline features seen at lambda > 20 mu correlate with each other, whi…
We present results from our spectroscopic study, using the Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) onboard the Spitzer Space Telescope, designed to identify massive young stellar objects (YSOs) in the Galactic Center (GC). Our sample of 107 YSO candidates was selected based on IRAC colors from the high spatial resolution, high sensitivity Spitzer/IRAC images in the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ), which spans the central ~300 pc region of the Milky Way Galaxy. We obtained IRS spectra over 5um to 35um using both high- and low-resolution IRS modules. We spectroscopically identify massive YSOs by the presence o…
Spitzer/IRS spectra from 5 to 37 um for a complete sample of 31 R Coronae Borealis stars (RCBs) are presented. These spectra are combined with optical and near-infrared photometry of each RCB at maximum light to compile a spectral energy distribution (SED). The SEDs are fitted with blackbody flux distributions and estimates made of the ratio of the infrared flux from circumstellar dust to the flux emitted by the star. Comparisons for 29 of the 31 stars are made with the IRAS fluxes from three decades earlier: Spitzer and IRAS fluxes at 12 um and 25 um are essentially equal for all but a minori…
Our knowledge of circumstellar disks has traditionally been based on studies of dust. However, gas dominates the disk mass and its study is key to understand the star and planet formation process. Spitzer can access gas emission lines in the mid-infrared, providing new diagnostics of the physical conditions in accretion disks and outflows. We have studied the spectra of 64 pre-main-sequence stars in Taurus using Spitzer/IRS observations. We have detected H2 (17.03, 28.22 $μ$m) emission in 6 objects, [Ne II] (12.81 $μ$m) in 18 objects, and [Fe II] (17.93, 25.99 $μ$m) in 7 objects. [Ne II] detec…
Since giant planets scatter planetesimals within a few tidal radii of their orbits, the locations of existing planetesimal belts indicate regions where giant planet formation failed in bygone protostellar disks. Infrared observations of circumstellar dust produced by colliding planetesimals are therefore powerful probes of the formation histories of known planets. Here we present new Spitzer IRS spectrophotometry of 111 Solar-type stars, including 105 planet hosts. Our observations reveal 11 debris disks, including two previously undetected debris disks orbiting HD 108874 and HD 130322. Combin…
We have studied the shock-excited molecular regions associated with four supernova remnants (SNRs) - IC443C, W28, W44 and 3C391 - and two Herbig-Haro objects, HH7 and HH54, using Spitzer's Infrared Spectrograph (IRS). The physical conditions within the observed areas are inferred from spectroscopic data obtained from IRS and from SWS and LWS onboard ISO, together with photometric data from Spitzer's Infrared Array Camera (IRAC). Adopting a power-law distribution for the gas temperature in the observed region, the H2 S(0) to S(7) spectral line maps obtained with IRS were used to constrain the g…
We present a study of the infrared properties of 4922 spectroscopically confirmed massive stars in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, focusing on the active OB star population. Besides OB stars, our sample includes yellow and red supergiants, Wolf-Rayet stars, Luminous Blue Variables (LBVs) and supergiant B[e] stars. We detect a distinct Be star sequence, displaced to the red, and find a higher fraction of Oe and Be stars among O and early-B stars in the SMC, respectively, when compared to the LMC, and that the SMC Be stars occur at higher luminosities. We also find photometric variability…
The SAGE-Spectroscopy Spitzer legacy program (SAGE-Spec; PI: F. Kemper, PID: 40159; Kemper et al. 2010) is the IRS spectroscopic follow-up to the successful SAGE-LMC legacy program (Meixner et al. 2006; PI: M. Meixner, PID: 20203) that mapped the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) with all bands of the IRAC and MIPS instruments on board the Spitzer Space Telescope. This technical document gives details of the data-reduction procedure and the various data products that are publicly available through IRSA: http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/data/SPITZER/SAGE/
We present a Spitzer/IRS low-resolution mid-infrared spectrum (5-14 micron) of the luminous transient discovered in the nearby galaxy NGC 300 in May 2008. The spectrum, obtained three months after discovery, shows that the transient is very luminous in the mid-IR. Furthermore, the spectrum shows strong, broad emission features at 8 and 12 micron that are observed in Galactic carbon-rich proto-planetary nebulae. Combining these data with published optical and near-IR photometry obtained at the same epoch, we find that the mid-IR excess traced by the Spitzer spectrum accounts for ~20% of the tot…
We analyze Spitzer IRS spectra of 110 B-, A-, F-, and G-type stars with optically thin infrared excess in the Scorpius-Centaurus (ScoCen) OB association. The age of these stars ranges from 11-17 Myr. We fit the infrared excesses observed in these sources by Spitzer IRS and Spitzer MIPS to simple dust models according to Mie theory. We find that nearly all the objects in our study can be fit by one or two belts of dust. Dust around lower mass stars appears to be closer in than around higher mass stars, particularly for the warm dust component in the two-belt systems, suggesting mass-dependent e…
We have observed 152 nearby solar-type stars with the Infrared Spectrometer (IRS) on the Spitzer Space Telescope. Including stars that met our criteria but were observed in other surveys, we get an overall success rate for finding excesses in the long wavelength IRS band (30-34 micron) of 11.8% +/- 2.4%. The success rate for excesses in the short wavelength band (8.5-12 micron) is ~1% including sources from other surveys. For stars with no excess at 8.5-12 microns, the IRS data set 3 sigma limits of around 1,000 times the level of zodiacal emission present in our solar system, while at 30-34 m…
We present a catalog of 5324 massive stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), with accurate spectral types compiled from the literature, and a photometric catalog for a subset of 3654 of these stars, with the goal of exploring their infrared properties. The photometric catalog consists of stars with infrared counterparts in the Spitzer, SAGE-SMC survey database, for which we present uniform photometry from 0.3-24 um in the UBVIJHKs+IRAC+MIPS24 bands. We compare the color magnitude diagrams and color-color diagrams to those of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), finding that the brightest infra…
The 9.7$μ$m interstellar spectral feature, arising from the Si--O stretch of amorphous silicate dust, is the strongest extinction feature in the infrared (IR). In principle, the spectral profile of this feature could allow one to diagnose the mineralogical composition of interstellar silicate material. However, observationally, the 9.7$μ$m interstellar silicate extinction profile is not well determined. Here we utilize the Spitzer/IRS spectra of five early-type (one O- and four B-type) stars and compare them with that of unreddened stars of the same spectral type to probe the interstellar exti…
We present findings for DG Tau B and VV CrA, two of the objects observed in our Spitzer IRS project to search for molecular absorption in edge-on disks, along with near-IR spectroscopy of the CO fundamental transitions and mid-IR imaging. While the only gas absorption seen in the Spitzer IRS spectrum toward DG Tau B is CO$_{2}$, we use gas abundances and gas/ice ratios to argue that we are probing regions of the disk that have low organic molecule abundances. This implies the rarity of detecting molecular absorption toward even edge-on disks with Spitzer IRS is a result of high dependence on t…
The Spitzer Space Telescope has three science instruments (IRAC, MIPS, and IRS) that can take images at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, 8.0, 24, 70, and 160 microns, spectra over 5--38 microns, and spectral energy distribution over 52--100 microns. The Spitzer archive contains targeted imaging observations for more than 100 PNe. Spitzer legacy surveys, particularly the GLIMPSE survey of the Galactic plane, contain additional serendipitous imaging observations of PNe. Spitzer imaging and spectroscopic observations of PNe allow us to investigate atomic/molecular line emission and dust continuum from the nebulae …
The characteristics of light variation of RSGs in SMC are analyzed based on the nearly 8-10 year long data collected by the ASAS and MACHO projects. The identified 126 RSGs are classified into five categories accordingly: 20 with poor photometry, 55 with no reliable period, 6 with semi-regular variation, 15 with Long Secondary Period (LSP) and distinguishable short period and 30 with only LSP. For the semi-regular variables and the LSP variables with distinguishable short period, the Ks band period-luminosity (P-L) relation is analyzed and compared with that of the Galaxy, LMC and M33. It is f…
In this paper the synthetic period-luminosity (P-L) relations in Spitzer's IRAC bands, based on a series of theoretical pulsation models with varying metal and helium abundance, were investigated. Selected sets of these synthetic P-L relations were compared to the empirical IRAC band P-L relations recently determined from Galactic and Magellanic Clouds Cepheids. For the Galactic case, synthetic P-L relations from model sets with (Y = 0.26, Z = 0.01), (Y = 0.26, Z = 0.02) and (Y = 0.28, Z = 0.02) agree with the empirical Galactic P-L relations derived from the Hubble Space Telescope parallaxes.…
The Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) on the {\em Spitzer Space Telescope} observed nearly 800 point sources in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), taking over 1,000 spectra. 197 of these targets were observed as part of the Sage-Spec Spitzer Legacy program; the remainder are from a variety of different calibration, guaranteed time and open time projects. We classify these point sources into types according to their infrared spectral features, continuum and spectral energy distribution shape, bolometric luminosity, cluster membership, and variability information, using a decision-tree classification m…
We report the detection of a compact (of order 5 arcsec; about 1800 AU projected size) CO outflow from L1148-IRS. This confirms that this Spitzer source is physically associated with the nearby (about 325 pc) L1148 dense core. Radiative transfer modeling suggests an internal luminosity of 0.08 to 0.13 L_sun. This validates L1148-IRS as a Very Low Luminosity Object (VeLLO; L < 0.1 L_sun). The L1148 dense core has unusually low densities and column densities for a star-forming core. It is difficult to understand how L1148-IRS might have formed under these conditions. Independent of the exact fin…
We describe Spitzer IRS spectroscopic observations of the 10 Myr-old star, EF Cha. Compositional modeling of the spectra from 5 μm to 35 μm confirms that it is surrounded by a luminous debris disk with LD/L\star ~ 10-3, containing dust with temperatures between 225 K and 430 K characteristic of the terrestrial zone. The EF Cha spectrum shows evidence for many solid-state features, unlike most cold, low-luminosity debris disks but like some other 10-20 Myr-old luminous, warm debris disks (e.g. HD 113766A). The EF Cha debris disk is unusually rich in a species or combination of species whose emi…
This paper reports variations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) features that were found in Spitzer Space Telescope spectra of carbon-rich post-asymptotic giant branch (post-AGB) stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). The paper consists of two parts. The first part describes our Spitzer spectral observing programme of 24 stars including post-AGB candidates. The latter half of this paper presents the analysis of PAH features in 20 carbon-rich post-AGB stars in the LMC, assembled from the Spitzer archive as well as from our own programme. We found that five post-AGB stars showed a b…
We present the spectral atlas of sources observed in low resolution with the Infrared Spectrograph on board the Spitzer Space Telescope. More than 11,000 distinct sources were extracted using a dedicated algorithm based on the SMART software with an optimal extraction (AdOpt package). These correspond to all 13,000 low resolution observations of fixed objects (both single source and cluster observations). The pipeline includes image cleaning, individual exposure combination, and background subtraction. A particular attention is given to bad pixel and outlier rejection at the image and spectra …
Massive stars can alter physical conditions and properties of their ambient interstellar dust grains via radiative heating and shocks. The HII regions in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) offer ideal sites to study the stellar energy feedback effects on dust because stars can be resolved, and the galaxy's nearly face-on orientation allows us to unambiguously associate HII regions with their ionizing massive stars. The Spitzer Space Telescope survey of the LMC provides multi-wavelength (3.6 to 160 $μ$m) photometric data of all HII regions. To investigate the evolution of dust properties around m…
We present 5 to 15 micron Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) low resolution spectral data of a candidate debris disk around an M4.5 star identified as a likely member of the ~40 Myr old cluster NGC2547. The IRS spectrum shows a silicate emission feature, indicating the presence of warm, small, (sub)micron-sized dust grains in the disk. Of the fifteen previously known candidate debris disks around M-type stars, the one we discuss in this paper is the first to have an observed mid-infrared spectrum and is also the first to have measured silicate emission. We combined the IRS data with ancillary…
We present 52-93 micron spectra, obtained with the Spitzer Space Telescope, of luminous compact far-IR sources in the SMC. These comprise 9 Young Stellar Objects (YSOs), the compact HII region N81 and a similar object within N84, and two red supergiants (RSGs). The spectra of the sources in N81 (of which we also show the ISO-LWS spectrum between 50-170 micron) and N84 both display strong [OI] 63-micron and [OIII] 88-micron fine-structure line emission. We attribute these lines to strong shocks and photo-ionized gas, respectively, in a ``champagne flow'' scenario. The nitrogen content of these …
We present a catalog of 1750 massive stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud, with accurate spectral types compiled from the literature, and a photometric catalog for a subset of 1268 of these stars, with the goal of exploring their infrared properties. The photometric catalog consists of stars with infrared counterparts in the Spitzer SAGE survey database, for which we present uniform photometry from 0.3-24 microns in the UBVIJHKs+IRAC+MIPS24 bands. The resulting infrared color-magnitude diagrams illustrate that the supergiant B[e], red supergiant and luminous blue variable (LBV) stars are among …
[abridged] We present 52-93 micron spectra obtained with Spitzer in the MIPS-SED mode, of a representative sample of luminous compact far-IR sources in the LMC. These include carbon stars, OH/IR AGB stars, post-AGB objects and PNe, RCrB-type star HV2671, OH/IR red supergiants WOHG064 and IRAS05280-6910, B[e] stars IRAS04530-6916, R66 and R126, Wolf-Rayet star Brey3a, Luminous Blue Variable R71, supernova remnant N49, a large number of young stellar objects, compact HII regions and molecular cores, and a background galaxy (z~0.175). We use the spectra to constrain the presence and temperature o…
With the entire Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) mapped by the Spitzer Space Telescope and Herschel Space Observatory, we were able to search 8-250 micron images in order to identify infrared (IR) emission associated with SMC supernova remnants (SNRs). A valid detection had to correspond with known X-ray, Halpha and radio emission from the SNRs. From the 24 known SNRs, we made 5 positive detections with another 5 possible detections. Two detections are associated with pulsars or pulsar wind nebula, and another three detections are part of the extended nebulous emission from the SNRs. We modelled d…
The \textit{Spitzer} SAGE survey has allowed the identification and analysis of significant samples of Young Stellar Object (YSO) candidates in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). However the angular resolution of \textit{Spitzer} is relatively poor meaning that at the distance of the LMC, it is likely that many of the \textit{Spitzer} YSO candidates in fact contain multiple components. We present high resolution \textit{K}-band integral field spectroscopic observations of the three most prominent massive YSO candidates in the N113 H\,{\sc ii} region using VLT/SINFONI. We have identified six \te…
We present the classification of 197 point sources observed with the Infrared Spectrograph in the SAGE-Spec Legacy program on the Spitzer Space Telescope. We introduce a decision-tree method of object classification based on infrared spectral features, continuum and spectral energy distribution shape, bolometric luminosity, cluster membership, and variability information, which is used to classify the SAGE-Spec sample of point sources. The decision tree has a broad application to mid-infrared spectroscopic surveys, where supporting photometry and variability information are available. We use t…
We report the results of spectroscopic mapping observations carried out toward protostellar outflows in the BHR71, L1157, L1448, NGC 2071, and VLA 1623 molecular regions using the Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) of the Spitzer Space Telescope. These observations, covering the 5.2 - 37 micron spectral region, provide detailed maps of the 8 lowest pure rotational lines of molecular hydrogen and of the [SI] 25.25 micron and [FeII] 26.0 micron fine structure lines. The molecular hydrogen lines, believed to account for a large fraction of the radiative cooling from warm molecular gas that has been heat…
The H II regions LMC N191 and SMC N77 are among the outermost massive star-forming regions in the Magellanic Clouds. So far, few works have dealt with these objects despite their interesting characteristics. We aim at studying various physical properties of these objects regarding their morphology (in the optical and Spitzer IRAC wavelengths), ionized gas emission, nebular chemical abundances, exciting sources, stellar content, age, presence or absence of young stellar objects, etc. This study is based mainly on optical ESO NTT observations, both imaging and spectroscopy, coupled with other ar…
The Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) on board the Spitzer Space Telescope observed about 15,000 objects during the cryogenic mission lifetime. Observations provided low-resolution (R~60-127) spectra over ~5-38um and high-resolution (R~600) spectra over ~10-37um. The Cornell Atlas of Spitzer/IRS Sources (CASSIS) was created to provide publishable quality spectra to the community. Low-resolution spectra have been available in CASSIS since 2011, and we present here the addition of the high-resolution spectra. The high-resolution observations represent approximately one third of all staring observation…