Multipolar Bubbles and Jets in Low-Excitation Planetary Nebulae: Toward a New Understanding of the Formation and Shaping of Planetary Nebulae

Details Multipolar Bubbles and Jets in Low-Excitation Planetary Nebulae: Toward a New Understanding of the Formation and Shaping of Planetary Nebulae Multipolar Bubbles and Jets in Low-Excitation Planetary Nebulae: Toward a New Understanding of the Formation and Shaping of Planetary Nebulae

Sep 1998

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1998aj....116.1357s&link_type=abstract

The Astronomical Journal, Volume 116, Issue 3, pp. 1357-1366.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

259

Stars: Circumstellar Matter, Ism: Planetary Nebulae: General, Planets And Satellites: General, Stars: Agb And Post-Agb, Stars: Mass Loss

Scientific paper

First results from a Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 Hα imaging survey of young planetary nebulae (PNs) are reported. The PNs have been selected on the basis of their low excitation characteristics. All objects imaged so far show highly aspherical morphology, with a majority characterized by multipolar bubbles distributed roughly point-symmetrically around the central star. In some objects, bipolar ansae or collimated radial structures are seen, indicating the presence of jets, whereas in others bright structures near the minor axes indicate the presence of disks or torii. The complexity, organization, and symmetry of the above structures lead us to propose that the primary agent for shaping PNs is high-speed collimated outflows or jets that operate during the late asymptotic galactic branch (AGB) and/or early post-AGB evolutionary phase, and not a preexisting equatorial density enhancement as envisioned in the currently popular model. These outflows carve out a complex imprint within an intrinsically spherical AGB circumstellar envelope (CSE). Subsequent expansion of a hot, tenuous stellar wind from the post-AGB star inside the imprinted AGB CSE then produces the observed PN, whose shape and structure depend in detail on how the characteristics of the jets change with time. Based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555.

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