Sloan, G. C. ; Zijlstra, A. A. ; Lagadec, E. ; Matsuura, M. ; Kraemer, K. E. ; Groenewegen, M. A. T. ; McDonald, I. ; van Loon, J. T. ; Bernard-Salas, J. ; Wood, P. R.

published in American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #219, 219, pp. 320.04 (2012)

Abstract: Infrared spectra from the Spitzer Space Telescope reveal significant quantities of dust produced in the outflows from carbon stars in the Sculptor, Fornax, and Leo I dwarf spheroidal galaxies. Three carbon stars in the Carina dwarf spheroidal appear to be relatively dust free. Many of the sources are known long-period variables, and comparisons of how the quantity of dust varies with pulsation period show no dependence on metallicity, as previously found when studying carbon stars in the more metal-rich Magellanic Clouds and the Milky Way. The previous comparisons revealed that as metallicity decreases, SiC dust emission features generally grow weaker while acetylene absorption bands grow stronger. Our new data also follow these trends and extend them to metallicities with [Fe/H] as low as about -1.4.

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