Heavy Metal Factory

The metal enrichment in the cosmic circuit of matter is dominated by the yields of asymptotic giant branch
(AGB) nucleosynthesis, that are blown back into the interstellar medium just before these stars die as
white dwarfs. To establish constraints on AGB processes, spectral analyses of hot post-AGB stars are
mandatory. These show that such stars are heavy metal factories due to the AGB s-process.
The Virtual Observatory service TheoSSA offers access to synthetic stellar spectra calculated with our
Tübingen non-local thermodynamic equilibrium model-atmosphere package that are suitable for the
analysis of hot post-AGB stars.