Bright Maser Emission in the Galaxy as Probes for Different Stellar Populations
CART Astrophysics Seminar Series
November 6, 2025 2:00 PM
Host:
Diana Dragomir
Presenter:
Rachel Weller (UNM)
Astronomical masers can serve as effective probes of various stellar populations, and can give us insight into the conditions of the environment, the kinematics of the emitting region, and larger scale dynamics associated with a given population. I will discuss current efforts towards forming a study of multiple maser species across different stellar populations to provide a more complete picture on the dynamics of our Galaxy. Work has been completed on a VLA study of 653 potential Red Super Giants (RSGs) in a search for 43 GHz SiO maser emission in massive star forming regions, as well as 1612 MHz OH masers in a sample of 1355 OH/IR stars associated with intermediate mass stars. I will present results on calculated properties and statistics of our detections, including Galactic distributions, expansion velocities and distances to our sources.
