IR Excesses of Four Central Stars of Planetary Nebulae

Details IR Excesses of Four Central Stars of Planetary Nebulae IR Excesses of Four Central Stars of Planetary Nebulae

Mar 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008aas...21116103b&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #211, #161.03

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

An infrared excess of a star indicates the presence of an additional object that is cooler and dimmer and therefore undetectable at optical wavelengths, such as a low-mass companion, a planet, or a dust disk. Dust disks have been detected around post-AGB stars and a number of white dwarfs (WDs). An intermediate stage between these two, the central stars of planetary nebulae (CSPNs), have been neglected in the search for dust disks. PN researches focus more on the nebulosity than the CSPN, and any detected excess is usually assumed to originate from stellar ejecta without further investigation. The Helix Nebula's central star was the first one found to exhibit IR excess after careful subtraction of nebular emission, and the origin of this excess was found to be a dust continuum. To search for more cases of IR excess of CSPNs, we have surveyed 40 resolved PNe in the Spitzer archive. For the PNe with resolved central stars, we carried out photometric measurements, and combined them with supplemental optical and near-IR data to construct their spectral energy distributions (SEDs). We further modeled stellar emission using appropriate stellar temperature, distance, and de-reddened V or B magnitude. We find four CSPNs that exhibit IR excess - NGC 2346, NGC 2438, NGC 6804 and NGC 7139. The nature and the origin of the IR excess in these CSPNs is still unclear and needs to be verified spectroscopically. If it is indeed continuous in nature, it is likely due to the presence of a dust disk, which could be produced in a common-envelope binary evolution, or result from tidal breakup of asteroids or collisions among Kuiper-Belt-like objects.

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