We also applied LTE and non-LTE white dwarf atmosphere spectra. At the moment, neither of these two alternatives for the white dwarf mass can be excluded. These results establish RX J0117.6-7330 as a transient Be binary system. We present ISO photometric and spectroscopic observations of a sample of 57 bright Asymptotic Giant Branch stars and red supergiants in the Large Magellanic Cloud, selected on the basis of IRAS colours indicative of high mass-loss rates. From the colour-colour diagrams and the spectra, we establish the chemical types of the dust around 49 stars in this sample.
Many stars have carbon-rich dust.
This method is particularly suited to pick out the clusterings within non-uniform fields. The comparative study of the spatial distributions for objects with known ages provides useful hints on the dominant mode of large scale star formation. Stellar species of the LMC disk and their formation history are under scrutiny, in the light of both an analytic approach and a Monte Carlo simulation. Our model reproduces the total observed optical depth towards the LMC as well as the observed event duration distribution, while complying with the velocity dispersion measurements. Chu et al.