Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Sep 1998
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1998aas...192.8303b&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, 192nd AAS Meeting, #83.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 30, p.1156
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The highly excited regions of type I planetary nebula NGC 6302 are visualized with an image taken in the light of [NeV]3426 Angstroms. When compared with the Hβ image, the highly excitated plasma is seen to extend ~ 45" at both sides of a central lane bisecting the nebula, in a manner reminiscent of a jet nozzle. This is the radiatively ionized high velocity wind previously identified in profiles of the [NeV]3426 Angstroms line. Excitation initially lessens away from the equatorial plane, but the gas is then ``reexcited" in four arches defining a bipolar structure. A possible explanation for these arches is that highly excited gas is being funneled along these directions by a physical constraint. An alternative interpretation is that the gas is truly being reexcited as it collides with the walls of a bipolar cavity. Images of [NII]6584 (R), [OIII]5007 (G) and [NeV]3426 (B) are combined in the RGB frame. Given the large difference of energies required to produce N(+) (14.5 eV), O(+2) (35.1 eV) and Ne(+4) (97.1 eV), this is probably the best depiction of the excitation level of the entire nebula that can be obtained from optical data alone. The northern part of the bisecting lane is clearly dominated by [OIII]5007 emission, whereas the highly excited gas is mostly found in the equatorial plane. Low excitation prevails in isolated regions located towards the periphery. The most conspicuous and extensive lies to the west, in a dense medium dominated by shocks. The low excitation level does not bolster up the idea of an additional energy source in this region.
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