Unwinding the Helix

Details Unwinding the Helix Unwinding the Helix

Dec 1998

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1998aas...193.1508h&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, 193rd AAS Meeting, #15.08; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 30, p.1276

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We present new observations of the Helix nebula (NGC 7293) which reveal its large scale, 3-dimensional structure. The Helix probably ranks as the best known planetary nebula, and the apparent form of a double ring or helix is familiar from many published optical images of the nebula. The true structure has, however, long been an open question, and in this paper we present a new approach to this problem. Using the 10.4 m telescope of the Caltech Sub-millimeter Observatory we have mapped the entire (~ 1000 arcsec ) Helix in the 1.3 mm CO J= 2-1 line, with an angular resolution of ~ 30arcsec and a velocity resolution of 1.5 km s(-1) . The CO emission indicates the presence of a massive neutral envelope in the Helix, which exhibits the apparent ring structure seen in optical images. It evidently forms a reservoir of neutral gas for the formation of the nebula and dictates the shape of the newly ionized gas. From the detailed kinematics of the envelope we have reconstructed the 3-dimensional shape, based on homologous expansion. Views of the envelope are presented using 3-dimensional visualization techniques. These views reveal the structure of the Helix, and its appearance as seen from different directions in space.

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