Astron. Astrophys. 357, 61-65 (2000)

5. Conclusions

Very large values of the CO index around 2.3 µm (i.e. [CO]0.18, larger than those observed in the oldest, metal rich stellar systems) indicate that the near IR luminosity should be dominated by a relative young SP of RSG/AGB stars. Any further attempt to better quantifying the age of this young SP in the range 10 Myr - 1 Gyr is unreliable since the theoretical evolutionary tracks are still too uncertain to properly describe the red supergiant and AGB evolution, especially at sub-solar metallicities.

© European Southern Observatory (ESO) 2000

Online publication: May 3, 2000
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