Astronomy Observation - stellar astronomy

Galactic archaeology in the local group with JWST. Evolved stellar populations shine brightly in the infrared and are an excellent tracer for past star formation in local galaxies. In addition, the AGB stage of stars life cycle contributes greatly to the chemical enrichment of its surroundings through mass loss in the form of dust. However, this very mechanism makes observing these stars very difficult with any current instruments available to us. The recent successful launch of JWST gives us an excellent opportunity to study these elusive stars. This project has guaranteed time on JWST in the first cycle which we will use to look at four local universe objects and gain further insight to the dust cycle in the evolved populations.