FLIERs in Planetary Nebulae

Mathematics – Logic

Scientific paper

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Hst Proposal Id #6117 Interstellar Medium

Scientific paper

FLIERs {Fast Low-Ionization Emission Regions} are pairs of nearly unresolved {10^16 cm} knots embedded within many highly -ionized elliptical and bipolar planetary nebulae and lying on equal and opposite sides of their stellar nucleus. FLIERs are characterized by very high velocities {50-100 km s^-1}, very low ionizations {the dominant lines are from neutral or singly ionized N, O, S, Mg and Fe}, and a high abundance of N {the local N/O enrichment of 5 in many cases}. The formation, excitation, and ionization processes of FLIERs are not at all understood. We propose to use the HST to study the structure and physical properties of FLIERs on size scales of the mean free paths of photons and the recombination zones behind shocks, 10^15 cm, in order to understand the enigmatic relationship of FLIERs and their parent nebulae. Only on these scales is it possible to tell whether FLIERs are ionization fronts, shocks, and/or excited by jets of collimated particles being flung continuously from deep within the stellar nucleus. Although the immediate aim of the proposed observations is a good phenomenological description of FLIERs, the observations will help to develop and/or constrain scenarios for their formation and evolution.

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