A New Morphological Classification System For Planetary Nebulae

Mathematics – Logic

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Scientific paper

Planetary nebulae come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors, making them some of the most beautiful objects seen in our universe. In order to understand the physical processes responsible for the different developments of planetary nebulae, we must first successfully provide a classification for their shapes and structures, a morphological classification. This classification scheme will be based on one previously developed for pre-planetary nebulae. About 80 young planetary nebulae were studied using high-resolution images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. The criteria used for classifying these planetary nebulae range from their overall structure, to smaller structures and properties within the objects. It was found that most of the morphological classification criteria for pre-planetary nebulae were applicable to young planetary nebulae as expected since the latter are the immediate successors of the former in an evolutionary sense. However, there some notable differences which required additional classification criteria; this indicates that new physical processes may have become operational during the evolution from the pre-planetary nebulae to the young planetary nebulae phase. In addition, expansion ages and masses of the planetary nebulae were derived. The ages were found to be typically 5,000 to 10,000 years, consistent with their classification as young planetary nebulae. Properly classifying these planetary nebulae will assist in ultimately understanding the physical processes responsible behind the development of their morphologies.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

A New Morphological Classification System For Planetary Nebulae does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with A New Morphological Classification System For Planetary Nebulae, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and A New Morphological Classification System For Planetary Nebulae will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1765553

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.