NICMOS Imaging Polarimetry of Compact Proto-Planetary Nebula Dust Shells

Details NICMOS Imaging Polarimetry of Compact Proto-Planetary Nebula Dust Shells NICMOS Imaging Polarimetry of Compact Proto-Planetary Nebula Dust Shells

Jul 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002hst..prop.9377u&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #9377

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Hst Proposal Id #9377

Scientific paper

We propose to resolve the structure of 4 proto-planetary nebula {PPN} dust shells by means of imaging polarimetry using NICMOS. In our previous WFPC2 imaging surveys, these PPNs show a compact elliptical nebulosity {of radius 0.5 to 2"} with a prominently visible central star. These PPNs appear to be members of a distinct class of PPNs, compared with bipolar nebulae in which an optically thick dust lane obscures the central star. Based on our previous mid-IR PPN survey, these PPNs are expected to host an optically thin, edge-on toroidal dust shell as evidence for the intrinsic axisymmetry of the PPN shells caused by an equatorially-enhanced mass loss during the asymptotic giant branch phase. These PPNs, however, are too compact to be fully resolved at mid-IR even with large ground-based telescopes because mid-IR images are diffraction- limited. The unique ability of imaging polarimetry at unprecedented high resolution makes HST the only instrument capable of isolating dust-scattered, polarized light from the shell and directly resolving the structure of compact PPNs without being hindered by the dominantly bright central star. These observations and following analysis with our radiative transfer code will provide crucial clues to the physical mechanism that drives the axisymmetric mass loss from originally spherically symmetric stars, which still remains to be one of the fundamental problems in astrophysics.

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