Both ground-based and space-based observatories are capable of measuring infrared spectra of dust in space. There are various studies of dusty environments that focus on the shape and strength of silicate features near 10��m and 18��m. The study I present may impact how people interpret silicate dust in their observations. Radiative Transfer (RT) modeling has often been used to analyze spectra and obtain a match to the overall spectral energy distribution with certain parameters. While RT modeling should allow us to build a spectrum that includes all contributions to the observed spectra, we are hampered by a lack of detailed or appropriate laboratory data for such modeling. This limits the application of RT modeling if we want to determine the detailed mineralogy of the dust. In some cases (usually very optically-thin scenarios), we can simply eliminate a continuous contribution to the observed spectrum to isolate any observed features and measure their basic spectral parameters. I created a program called MiraFitter to investigate several methods of continuum elimination using spectroscopy data for the archetypal dusty AGB star, Mira. I have investigated the ���10��m and ���18��m spectral features in the continuum-eliminated spectrum including peak position, barycenter, and full width half maxima (FWHM). The positions and widths of observed spectral features were compared with those seen in laboratory spectra. The results show that the method of continuum elimination matters for correct identification of dust minerals, while varying the temperature and precise continuum shapes do not have a major effect on the positions of spectral features.

{"references": ["Shepard & Speck (2021) arXiv:2107.07447"]}