IR imaging surveys of AGB stars in the Magellanic Clouds

University of Hertfordshire, STRI, College Lane, Hatfield AL10 9AB, UK

Abstract

AGB stars are ideal IR targets because they are cool and bright. Most of them escaped detection in optical or shallow IR surveys in the eighties contributing to the puzzling missing number of AGB stars with respect to theoretical predictions and former stages of evolution. Observations and AGB models have advanced steadily in the following decades providing us with an almost complete view of the AGB stars in the Magellanic Clouds. Their properties are tracers of structure and chemistry across galaxies. New surveys will be able to fill-in the gaps, in terms of sensitivity and monitoring, providing new constraints for the formation and evolution of the Magellanic Clouds.