Circumstellar matter as detected by IRAS - Some systematics

Abstract

Most of the sources noted by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite are, as expected, more or less normal cool giant stars, but a very large number of objects of earlier spectral type were also picked up. These cases must involve, in a variety of ways, circumstellar gas and dust. From a large-scale program of identification of the IRAS objects, some systematics emerge.