The Molecular-Rich Outflow of Giant Stars

When stars like our Sun reach the end of their lives, they become giants and eject a lot of their initial mass through a slow, dense outflow. These winds are driven by microscopic solid particles (dust grains) that condense in the cool stellar atmospheres. The dust is the product of a large number of chemical reactions that take place in the extended atmosphere and outflow, and which also lead to the formation of several molecules. By studying the abundances and distribution of these molecules, a better understanding of the chemistry and physical properties of the ejected gas can be achieved. Ground-based observatories such as ALMA now allow us to detect a large number of molecular lines and map the emission regions in an unprecedented way, providing crucial new constraints to the study of the chemistry in the outflows of evolved stars. This CASSUM project concerns the study of observations of a sample of several tens of evolved stars observed with the Atacama Compact Array.

Faculty Supervisor:

Jo-Anne Brown

Student:

Partner:

Chalmers University of Technology

Discipline:

Physics

Sector:

Education

University:

University of Calgary

Program: