CRL2688: The Rosetta Stone for the Evolution of AGB Red Giants into Bipolar Planetary Nebulae

Details CRL2688: The Rosetta Stone for the Evolution of AGB Red Giants into Bipolar Planetary Nebulae CRL2688: The Rosetta Stone for the Evolution of AGB Red Giants into Bipolar Planetary Nebulae

Dec 1997

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997hst..prop.7423s&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #7423

Physics

Hst Proposal Id #7423 Young Stars And Circumstellar Material

Scientific paper

A 260 sec wide-band {606 nm} WFPC2 image of the bipolar protoplanetary nebula CRL2688 has led to our discovery of a large number of bright arcs around, and a pair of radial "searchlight- beams" emerging from, within the vicinity of the obscured central star. The arcs are the first direct evidence for irregular variations in the mass-loss rate throughout the 10^4 yr history of mass-ejection from the progenitor AGB star. The razor-sharp edges of the searchlight beams have overturned a long-held paradigm for the density structure of CRL2688. CRL2688 has thus become the Rosetta Stone for the evolution of AGB red giants to bipolar planetary nebulae, We therefore propose to use WFPC2 and NICMOS to conduct a optical and infrared imaging study of CRL2688. Deep imaging at 450, 606 & 814 nm, and polarimetric imaging at 1 and 2micron {together with our previous 606 nm polarimetric imaging} will allow us to probe the mass-ejection process at look-back times > 10^4 yr, accurately characterise the structure of the arcs, the mass of the nebula and progenitor star, and tightly constrain the properties of the dust grains, as well as the precise location of the central star. Imaging of the 2.1micron H_2 line emission will probe the interaction of the high-velocity outflow and the dense AGB wind, which is believed to mediate the red giant-to-planetary nebula transformation. Our detailed study promises to lead to major breakthroughs in our understanding of late stellar evolution.

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