Study of the structure and evolution of galaxies based on infrared observations of stars at the latest stage of their evolution

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The purpose of the present research is to clarify the structure and evolution of galaxies on the basis of infrared observations of stars at the latest stage of their evolution. The rapid developments of the infrared array detectors in recent years made it possible to study cool stars, which can be used as probes to clarify the basic structure of galaxies.For this purpose, we first developed infrared camera and spectrograph by the use of a large format infrared array detector PtSi 1040X1040. As the control system, we designed and manufactured a high speed and high precision AD converter based on the Messia (a CCD driving system developed at the National Astronomical Observatory). Our new system can be used for general purpose. We have developed new instruments equipped with a large format infrared array to be drived by our new control system :1) Wide field infrared camera to be used with Kiso 105 cm Schmidt telescope.2) Infrared spectrograph to be used at the coude focus of the 188cm reflector at the Okayama Astrophysical Observatory.At present, the noise level of the detector is somewhat higher than expected, and we are doing our last efforts to improve this together with adjustments of the hard and soft wares of our system.We also developed a computer system to analyze the IRAS database, which is the baic data for our present study. This data analysis system is also important for analyzing the data to be obtained by the new insruments mentioned above and by the ISO to be lauched this autumn. We further started to develope algorithm and softwares to analyze the data to be obtained by the ISO.For example, we have examined in detail the image reconstruction algorithm to be used for detecting faint images and this is the basis of our search for primeval galaxies in the infrared.