• Title/Summary/Keyword: planetary nebulae

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SPECTROSCOPY OF BRIGHT EXTRAGALACTIC PLANETARY NEBULAE

  • Richer, Michael G.
    • Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.40 no.4
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    • pp.183-186
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    • 2007
  • The spectroscopic properties of bright extragalactic planetary nebulae are reviewed, considering primarily their chemical abundances and their internal kinematics. Low-resolution spectroscopy is used to investigate how the precursor stars of bright planetary nebulae modify their original composition through nucleosynthesis and dredge up. At present, the evidence indicates that oxygen and neon abundances usually remain unchanged, helium abundances are typically enhanced by less than 50%, while nitrogen enhancements span a very wide range. Interpreting these changes in terms of the masses of their progenitor stars implies that the progenitor stars typically have masses or order $1.5M_{\bigodot}$ or less, though no models satisfactorily explain the nitrogen enrichment. High-resolution spectroscopy is used to study the internal kinematics of bright planetary nebulae in Local Group galaxies. At first sight, the expansion velocities are remarkably uniform, with a typical expansion velocity of 18 km/s and a range of 8-28 km/s, independent of the progenitor stellar population. Upon closer examination, bright planetary nebulae in the bulge of M31 expand slightly faster than their counterparts in M31's disk, a result that may extend generally to the planetary nebulae arising from old and young stellar populations. There are no very strong correlations between expansion velocity and global nebular properties, except that there are no large expansion velocities at the highest $H{\beta}$ luminosities (i.e., the youngest objects never expand rapidly). These results independently suggest that bright planetary nebulae arise from a similar mass range in all galaxies. Nonetheless, there are good reasons to believe that bright planetary nebulae do not arise from identical progenitor stars in all galaxies.

ABUNDANCES OF PLANETARY NEBULAE IN M 31 AND M 32

  • HYUNG SIEK;ALLER LAWRENCE H.;HAN SOO-RYEON;KIM YOUNG-KWANG;HAN WONYONG;CHOI YOUNGJUN
    • Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.33 no.2
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    • pp.97-110
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    • 2000
  • Planetary nebulae provide a direct way to probe elemental abundances, their distributions and their gradients in populations in nearby galaxies. We investigate bulge planetary nebulae in M 31 and M 32 using the strong emission lines, H$\alpha$, He I, [O III], [N II], [S II] and [Ne III]. From the [O III] 4363/5007 line ratio and the [O II] 3727/3729, we determine the electron temperatures and number densities. With a standard modeling procedure (Hyung, 1994), we fit the line intensities and diagnostic temperatures, and as a result, we derive the chemical abundances of individual planetary nebulae in M 31 and M 32. The derived chemical abundances are compared with those of the well-known Galactic planetary nebulae or the Sun. The chemical abundances of M 32 appear to be less enhanced compared to the Galaxy or M 31.

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A WIDE FIELD SURVEY OF PLANETARY NEBULAE IN M31: A PROGRESS REPORT

  • RICHER M. G.;LEE M. G.;HWANG N.
    • Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.37 no.4
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    • pp.269-272
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    • 2004
  • We present the first results of a wide field survey for planetary nebulae throughout M31 undertaken at the KPNO 0.9m telescope with the Mosaic camera. So far, images in [O III]$\lambda$5007 and its continuum filter have been analyzed. Our survey appears to be at least $90\%$ complete to about 2 mag below the peak of the planetary nebula luminosity function. Over 900 planetary nebulae candidates have been found within a 12 square degree area.

HIGH DISPERSION OPTICAL SPECTROSCOPY OF PLANETARY NEBULAE

  • HYUNG SIEK
    • Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.37 no.4
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    • pp.273-279
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    • 2004
  • Chemical compositions of planetary nebulae are of interest for a study of the late stage of stellar evolution and for elemental contributions to the interstellar medium of reprocessed elements since possibly a large fraction of stars in 0.8 - 8 $M_{\bigodot}$ range go through this stage. One of the methods for getting chemical composition is a construction of theoretical photoionization models, which involves geometrical complexities and a variety of physical processes. With modelling effort, one can analyze the high dispersion and find the elemental abundances for a number of planetary nebulae. The model also gives the physical parameter of planetary nebula and its central star physical parameter along with the knowledge of its evolutionary status. Two planetary nebulae, NGC 7026 and Hu 1-2, which could have evolved from about one solar mass progenitor stars, showed radically different chemical abundances: the former has high chemical abundances in most elements, while the latter has extremely low abundances. We discuss their significance in the light of the evolution of our Galaxy.

PLANETARY NEBULAE: NEW CHALLENGES IN THE 21ST CENTURY

  • KWOK SUN
    • Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.38 no.2
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    • pp.271-278
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    • 2005
  • Athough planetary nebulae (PNe) have been discovered for over 200 years, it was not until 30 years ago that we arrived at a basic understanding of their origin and evolution. Even today, with observations covering the entire electromagnetic spectrum from radio to X-ray, there are still many unanswered questions on their structure and morphology. In this review, we summarize recent theoretical and observational advances in PNe research, and discuss the roles of PNe in the chemical (atomic, molecular, and solid-state) enrichment of the galaxy and as tracers of the large scale structure of the Universe.

Photoionization Models for Planetary Nebulae: Comparison of Predictions by NEBULA and CLOUDY

  • Lee, Seong-Jae;Hyung, Siek
    • Journal of the Korean earth science society
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    • v.29 no.5
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    • pp.419-427
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    • 2008
  • The Galactic planetary nebulae emit many strong recombination and forbidden lines. By analyzing such lines, the physical condition of the planetary nebulae has been inferred using the strategically important diagnostic line ratios. In order to fully understand the physical condition of a planetary nebula and to derive its chemical abundances, the photoionization model codes, e.g., CLOUDY and NEBULA, were employed for an analysis of gaseous nebular spectra. For the well-studied, relatively simple planetary nebula NGC 7026, theoretical investigation was done with about the same input parameters in models. The predictions made by both codes seem to be in good accord. However, the predicted physical conditions, such as electron temperature and density, are slightly different. Especially, the electron temperatures are predicted to be higher in CLOUDY, which may cause a problem in chemical abundance determination. Our analysis shows that the main discordance may occur due to the diffuse radiation.

EFFECTS OF COLLISIONAL DE-EXCITATION ON THE RESONANCE DOUBLET FLUX RATIOS IN SYMBIOTIC STARS AND PLANETARY NEBULAE

  • Kang, Eun-Ha;Lee, Hee-Won
    • Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.41 no.3
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    • pp.49-58
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    • 2008
  • Resonance doublets including O VI 1032, 1038, NV 1239, 1243 and C IV 1548, 1551 constitute prominent emission lines in symbiotic stars and planetary nebulae. Spectroscopic studies of symbiotic stars and planetary nebulae from UV space telescopes show various line ratios of these doublets deviating from the theoretical ratio of 2:1. Using a Monte Carlo technique, we investigate the collisional de-excitation effect in these emission nebulae. We consider an emission nebula around the hot component of a symbiotic star characterized by the collisional de-excitation probability $p_{coll}\;{\sim}\;10^{-3}\;-\;10^{-4}$ per each resonance scattering, and the line center optical depths for major resonance doublets in the range ${\tau}_0\;{\sim}\;10^2\;-\;10^5$. We find that various line ratios are obtained when the product $p_{coll}{\tau}_0$ is of order unity. Our Monte Carlo calculations show that the flux ratio can be approximately fitted by a linear function of ${\log}{\tau}_0$ when ${\tau}_0p_{coll}\;{\sim}\;1$. It is briefly discussed that this corresponds to the range relevant to the emission nebulae of symbiotic stars.

KINEMATICAL PROPERTIES OF PLANETARY NEBULAE WITH WR-TYPE NUCLEI

  • DANEHKAR, ASHKBIZ;STEFFEN, WOLFGANG;PARKER, QUENTIN A.
    • Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.30 no.2
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    • pp.163-167
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    • 2015
  • We have carried out integral field unit (IFU) spectroscopy of $H{\alpha}$, [$N{\small{II}}$] and [$O{\small{III}}$] emission lines for a sample of Galactic planetary nebulae (PNe) with Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars and weak emission-line stars (wels). Comparing their spatially-resolved kinematic observations with morpho-kinematic models allowed us to disentangle their three-dimensional gaseous structures. Our results indicate that these PNe have axisymmetric morphologies, either bipolar or elliptical. In many cases the associated kinematic maps for the PNe around hot central stars also reveal the presence of so-called fast low-ionization emission regions.

PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF PLANETARY NEBULAE WITH WR-TYPE NUCLEI

  • DANEHKAR, ASHKBIZ;WESSON, ROGER;KARAKAS, AMANDA I.;PARKER, QUENTIN A.
    • Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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    • v.30 no.2
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    • pp.159-161
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    • 2015
  • We have carried out optical spectroscopic measurements of emission lines for a sample of Galactic planetary nebulae with Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars and weak emission-line stars (wels). The plasma diagnostics and elemental abundance analysis have been done using both collisionally excited lines (CELs) and optical recombination lines (ORLs). It was found that the abundance discrepancy factors ($ADF{\equiv}ORL/CEL$) are closely correlated with the difference between temperatures derived from forbidden lines and those from $He\;{\small{I}}$ recombination lines, implying the existence of H-deficient materials embedded in the nebula. The $H{\beta}$ surface brightness correlations suggest that they might be also related to the nebular evolution.

The Search for Binaries in Post-Asymptotic Giant Branch Stars: Do Binary Companions Shape the Nebulae?

  • Hrivnak, Bruce J.
    • Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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    • v.29 no.1
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    • pp.57-61
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    • 2012
  • Binary companions are often invoked to explain the axial and point symmetry seen in the majority of planetary nebulae and proto-planetary nebulae (PPNs). To explore this hypothesis, we have undertaken a long-term (20 year) study of light and velocity variations in PPNs. From the photometric study of 24 PPNs, we find that all vary in brightness, and from a subset of 12 carbon-rich PPNs of F-G spectral type we find periods of 35-155 days, with the cooler having the longer periods. The variations are seen to be due to pulsation; no photometric evidence for binarity is seen. A radial velocity study of a sub-sample of seven of the brightest of these shows that they all vary with the pulsation periods. Only one shows evidence of a longer-term variation that we tentatively identify as being due to a binary companion. We conclude that the present evidence for the binary nature of these PPNs is meager and that any undetected companions of these PPNs must be of low mass (< 0.25 $M_{\odot}$) or long period (> 30 years).