Dust in Large Magellanic Cloud Planetary Nebulae

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

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Scientific paper

Planetary Nebulae (PNe) represent a stage in the evolution of low- to intermediate-mass stars with initial masses of 1-8 Msun. At the end of its life, a star of such mass evolves first into a red giant branch star, then an asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star. In the early AGB stage, dust grains are formed outside the surface of the star. The dust grains are easily coupled with the gas in the hydrogen-rich envelope. As the dust grains receive radiation pressure from the central star and move radially outward, the dramatic mass-loss begins. The ejected material is ionized by the UV radiation from the central star, and PNe are formed.
The ejected material enables studies of the chemical richness of the Galaxy when the progenitor of the PN was born. If we can estimate the ejected mass, then we can directly estimate elemental yields synthesized by PNe progenitors, and we can build realistic stellar evolution models and Galactic chemical evolution models. To this end, we need to know how much and what kind of dust is in PNe with different metallicities because dust controls mass-loss and its composition determines the surrounding chemical environment.
Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) PNe are ideal laboratories to study dust in low- to intermediate-mass stars with low metallicity (<[Ar/H]> -0.6). We have obtained Spitzer IRAC/MIPS data for > 150 PNe in the LMC through the SAGE project and been gathering archival optical and near-IR data to investigate the dust in these objects. Since the distance to the LMC is well determined, and the interstellar reddening is relatively low, we can accurately estimate intrinsic flux densities and size of nebula. In this poster, we will present preliminary results of dust research in some LMC PNe using the radiative transfer code MOCASSIN.

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