Imaging Reflection Nebulosity in Three Post-AGB Objects

Details Imaging Reflection Nebulosity in Three Post-AGB Objects Imaging Reflection Nebulosity in Three Post-AGB Objects

Jul 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996hst..prop.6737m&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #6737

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Hst Proposal Id #6737 Hot Stars

Scientific paper

We propose to image the reflection nebulosity of three post- AGB stars, HD56126, HD161796 and HD179821. From our mid- infrared {8-13m} images, we have determined that all three are surrounded by 2-4" sized dust shells that have a remarkable structure: a geometrically thin, elliptical shell with equatorial density enhancements. The purpose of the HST observations is to image the reflection nebulosity that we expect to be there, but has not yet been observed because ground based resolution is too poor to separate the bright central stars {m_v=7.2-8.3} from the less bright reflection nebulosity. We expect to see a bipolar reflection nebula that is perpendicular to the dusty torus observed in the mid-IR and we may also find large reflection nebula halos and multi-rings indicative of multiple mass loss episodes. We will analyze these data with our mid-IR images using an axially symmetric dust code from which we will derive mass loss rates and pole to equator density ratios. These observations and analysis will provide crucial clues to the physical mechanism that drives the final mass loss stages of AGB stars and that inevitably steers the course of the star's evolution towards the planetary nebula phase. The physical mechanism of stellar mass loss on the AGB is one of the unsolved problems in stellar astrophysics. This AGB mass loss enriches the ISM from which the next generation of stars are born, forming a link between the AGB mass loss problem and the rest of astrophysical phenomena.

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