Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T01:44:15.520Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Planetary Nebula Formation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 March 2016

Sun Kwok
Sun Kwok*
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and AstronomyUniversity of CalgaryCalgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The idea that planetary nebulae (PN) originate from the outer atmospheres of red giant was first proposed by Shkloskii (1956). In the early 1970’s, it was generally believed that PN were created by a sudden envelope ejection; however, the exact nature of the instability responsible for the ejection was not understood. Furthermore, it was not clear how the observed masses of PN are related to the amount of mass ejected, and there was no explanation of how the observed shell morphologies of PN could be created by such instabilities. From the observed sizes and expansion velocities of PN, we know that the dynamical lifetime of a PN is ~104yr. During this period, the star has to evolve from the red side of the H-R diagram, where the envelope is ejected, to the blue side of the H-R diagram, where the stellar temperature is high enough to photoionize the ejecta. If the star evolves too slowly, the nebula will have dispersed into the interstellar medium before it is ionized. If the star evolves too fast, then the nebula will only be illuminated for a short time before the stellar luminosity drops on the white dwarf cooling track (Renzini 1982). It is therefore surprising that PN is such a common phenomenon, with ~30000 PN estimated to be in the Galaxy now.

Type
Joint Commission Meetings
Information
Highlights of Astronomy , Volume 9: Highlights of Astronomy. As presented at the XXIst General Assembly of the IAU, 1991 , 1992 , pp. 631 - 633
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1992

References

Aitkens, D.K, & Roche, P.F. 1982, MNRAS, 200, 217 Google Scholar
Balick, B. 1987, AJ, 94, 671 Google Scholar
Bedijn, P.J. 1987, A&A, 186, 136 Google Scholar
Bedogni, R., & d’Ercole, A. 1986, A&A, 157, 101 Google Scholar
Chu, Y.H., Manchado, A., Jacoby, G.H., & Kwitter, K.B. 1991, ApJ, 376, 150 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hrivnak, B.J., Kwok, S., & Volk, K. 1989, ApJ, 346, 265 Google Scholar
Huggins, P.J., & Healy, A.P. 1989, ApJ, 346, 101 Google Scholar
Kahn, F.D., 1983, in IAU Symp 103: Planetary Nebulae, ed. Flower, D.R. (Dordrecht:Reidel), p. 305 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kwok, S. 1982, ApJ, 258, 101 Google Scholar
Kwok, S. 1983, in IAU Symp 103: Planetary Nebulae, ed. Flower, D.R. (Dordrecht:Reidel), p. 293 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kwok, S. 1990, MNRAS, 244, 101 Google Scholar
Kwok, S., Purton, C.R., & FitzGerald, P.M. 1978, ApJ, 219, L125 Google Scholar
Kwok, S., Hrivnak, B.J., & Volk, K.M. 1990, in From Miras to Planetary Nebulae, ed. Mennessier, M.O., p. 435 Google Scholar
Lewis, B.M. 1989, ApJ, 338, 101 Google Scholar
Likkel, L. 1989, ApJ, 344, 101 Google Scholar
Likkel, L., Forveille, T., Omont, A., & Morris, M. 1991, A&A, 246, 101 Google Scholar
Marten, H., & Schönberner, D. 1991, A&A, in pressGoogle Scholar
Okorokov, VA., Shustov, B.M., Tutukov, A.V., & Yorke, H.W. 1985, A&A, 142, 101 Google Scholar
Paczyński, B. 1971, Acta Astron, 31, 101 Google Scholar
Pauldrach, A., Puls, J., Kudritzki, R.P., Méndez, R.H., Heap, S.R. 1988, A&A, 207, 123 Google Scholar
Parthasarathy, M. & Pottasch, S.R. 1987, A&A, 154, L16 Google Scholar
Pottasch, S.R. et al. 1984, A&A, 138, 101 Google Scholar
Renzini, A. 1982, in IAU Symp 103: Planetary Nebulae, ed. Flower, D.R. (Dordrecht:Reidel), p.267 Google Scholar
Schmidt-Voigt, M., & Köppen, J. 1987a, A&A, 174, 101 Google Scholar
Schmidt-Voigt, M., & Köppen, J. 1987b, A&A, 174, 101 Google Scholar
Schönberner, D. 1983, ApJ, 272, 101 Google Scholar
Shklovskii, I. 1956, Astr. Zh., 33, 315 Google Scholar
Soker, N., & Livio, M. 1989, ApJ, 339, 268 Google Scholar
Trams, N.R., Waters, L.B.F.M., Lamers, H.J.G.L.M., Waelkens, C., Geballe, T.R., & Thé, P.S. 1991, A&AS, 87, 361 Google Scholar
van der Veen, W.E.C.J. 1988, Thesis, Leiden Observatory, Netherlands Google Scholar
Volk, K., & Kwok, S. 1985, A&A, 153, 101 Google Scholar
Volk, K., & Kwok, S. 1989, ApJ, 342, 101 Google Scholar
Woodsworth, A.W., Kwok, S., & Chan, S.J. 1990, A&A, 228, 503 Google Scholar
Zhang, C.Y., & Kwok, S. 1990, A&A, 237, 479 Google Scholar
Zijlstra, A.A., et al. 1989, A&A, 217, 157 Google Scholar