Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T01:19:23.614Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Historical overview of planetary nebulae research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 August 2012

Sun Kwok
Sun Kwok*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Science, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

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.

Planetary nebulae (PNs) were first discovered over 200 years ago and our understanding of these objects has undergone significant evolution over the years. Developments in astronomical optical spectroscopy and atomic physics have shown that PNe are gaseous objects photoionized by UV radiation from a hot central star. Studies of the kinematics of the nebulae coupled with progress in theories of stellar evolution have led to the identification that PNe are evolved stars and progenitors of white dwarfs. Development of infrared and millimeter-wave technology in the 1970s made us realize that there is significant amount of neutral matter (molecules and dust) in PNe. The link of PNe to the stellar winds from their progenitor asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars and subsequent dynamical interactions are now believed to be the underlying causes of the morphological structures of PNe. The role of PNe as prolific molecular factories producing complex molecules and organic solids has significant implications on the chemical enrichment of the Galaxy.

In this paper, we discuss the misconceptions and errors that we have encountered in our journey of understanding the nature of PN. The various detours and dead ends that had happened during our quest to pin down the evolutionary status and causes of nebulae ejection will be discussed. As there are still many unsolved problems in PN research, these lessons of history have much to offer for future progress in this field.

Keywords

Binaries: generalplanetary nebulae: generalstars: AGB and post AGBstars: evolution
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 7 , Symposium S283: Planetary Nebulae: An Eye to the Future , July 2011 , pp. 1 - 8
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2012

References

Abell, G. O. 1966, ApJ, 144, 259 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abell, G. O. & Goldreich, P. 1966, PASP, 78, 232 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, D. A. 1984, Proc. Astr. Soc. Australia, 5, 369 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, D. A. 1988, in IAU Colloq. 103, The Symbiotic Phenomenon, eds. Mikolajewska, J. et al. (Reidel: Dordrecht), p. 3 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aller, L. H. 1956, Gaseous Nebulae, (New York: Wiley)Google Scholar
Bowen, I. S. 1928, ApJ, 67, 1 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Capriotti, E. R. 1973, ApJ, 179, 495 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chu, Y., Jacoby, G. H., & Arendt, R. 1987, ApJS, 64, 529 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corradi, R. L. M., Schönberner, D., Steffen, M., & Perinotto, M. 2000, A&A, 354, 1071 Google Scholar
Corradi, R. L. M., Schönberner, D., Steffen, M., & Perinotto, M. 2003, MNRAS, 340, 417 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corradi, R. L. M., Manchado, A., & Soker, N. (eds.) 2007, Asymmetric Planetary Nebulae IV, eds. IAC electronic publicationsGoogle Scholar
Curtis, H. D. 1918, Publ. Lick Obs., Vol. XIII, Part III, p. 57 Google Scholar
Deinzer, W. & Hansen, C. 1968, AJ, 73, 173 Google Scholar
de Marco, O. 2010, PASP, 121, 316 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Kool, M. 1990, ApJ, 358, 189 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faulkner, D. J. 1970, ApJ, 162, 513 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferch, R. L. & Salpeter, E. E. 1975, ApJ, 202, 195 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finzi, A. & Wolf, R. A. 1971, A&A, 11, 418 Google Scholar
Finzi, A., Finzi, R., & Shaviv, G. 1974, A&A, 37, 325 Google Scholar
Härm, R. & Schwarzschild, M. 1975, ApJ, 200, 324 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harman, R. J. & Seaton, M. J. 1966, MNRAS, 132, 15 Google Scholar
Heap, S. R. et al. , 1978, Nature, 275, 385 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henize, K. G. 1967, ApJS, 14, 125 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hubble, E. 1922, ApJ, 56, 400 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iben, I. 1984, ApJ, 277, 333 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iben, I. Jr. & Tutukov, A. V. 1985, ApJS, 58, 661 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iben, I. Jr. & Tutukov, A. V. 1987, ApJ, 313, 727 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iben, I. Jr. & Tutukov, A. V. 1989, in IAU Symp. 131: Planetary Nebulae, ed. Torres-Peimbert, , (Kluwer), p. 505 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jewitt, D. C., Danielson, G. E., & Kupferman, P. N. 1986, ApJ, 302, 727 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kovetz, A. & Harpaz, A. 1981, A&A, 95, 66 Google Scholar
Kraft, R. P. 1964, ApJ, 139, 457 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kutter, G. S. & Sparks, W. M. 1974, ApJ, 192, 447 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kutter, G. S., Savedoff, M. P., & Schuerman, D. W. 1969, ApSS, 3, 182 Google Scholar
Kwok, S. 1982, ApJ, 258, 280 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kwok, S. 1985, ApJ, 290, 568 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kwok, S. 2004, Nature, 430, 985 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kwok, S. 2010, PASA, 27, 174 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kwok, S., Purton, C. R., & FitzGerald, M. P. 1978, ApJ, 219, L125 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lucy, L. B. 1967, AJ, 72, 813 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marten, H. & Schönberner, D. 1991, A&A, 248, 590 Google Scholar
Mathews, W. G. 1966, ApJ, 143, 173 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meixner, M., Kastner, J., Balick, B., & Soker, N. (eds.) 2004, Asymmetric Planetary Nebulae III, ASP conf. ser., Vol. 313Google Scholar
Menzel, D. H. 1926, PASP, 38, 295 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Minkowski, R. 1964, PASP, 76, 197 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Dell, C. R. 1963, ApJ, 138, 67 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paczyński, B. 1970, Acta Astr. 20, 47 Google Scholar
Paczyński, B. 1971, Acta Astr., 21, 417 Google Scholar
Paczyński, B. 1976, in IAU Symp. 73: Structure and Evolution of Close Binary Systems, Eggleton, P., Mitton, S., & Whelan, J. (eds), (Reidel: Dordrecht), p. 75 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paczyński, B. & Rudak, B. 1980, A&A, 82, 349 Google Scholar
Paczyński, B. & Ziólkowski, J. 1968, Acta Astr., 18, 255 Google Scholar
Perek, L. & Kohoutek, L. 1967, Catalog of Galactic Planetary Nebulae, (Academia: Praha)Google Scholar
Perinotto, M. 1993, in IAU Symp 155: Planetary Nebulae, eds. Weinberger, R. & Acker, A. (Kluwer: Dordrecht), p. 57 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perinotto, M., Schönberner, D., Steffen, M., & Calonaci, C. 2004, A&A, 414, 993 Google Scholar
Pottasch, S. R., et al. 1984, A&A, 138, 10 Google Scholar
Roxburgh, I. W. 1967, Nature, 215, 838 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salpeter, E. E. 1968, IAU Symp. 34: Planetary Nebulae, eds. Osterbrock, D. & O'Dell, C.R. (Reidel: Dordrecht), p. 409 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt-Voigt, M. & Köppen, J. 1987a, A&A, 174, 211 Google Scholar
Schmidt-Voigt, M. & Köppen, J. 1987b, A&A, 174, 223 Google Scholar
Schönberner, D. 1979, A&A, 79, 108 Google Scholar
Schönberner, D. 1981, A&A, 103, 119 Google Scholar
Schönberner, D. 1993, Acta Astron., 43, 297 Google Scholar
Shaviv, G. 1978, IAU Symp 76: Planetary Nebulae, ed. Terzian, Y., (Reidel: Dordrecht), p. 195 Google Scholar
Shklovsky, I. 1956a, Astr. Zh., 33, 315 Google Scholar
Shklovsky, I. 1956b, Astr. Zh., 33, 222 Google Scholar
Smith, R. L. & Rose, W. K. 1972, ApJ, 176, 395 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sofia, S. & Hunter, J. H. 1967, AJ, 72, 830 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stanghellini, L., Corradi, R. L. M., & Schwarz, H. E. 1993, A&AS, 279, 521 Google Scholar
Steffen, M., Szczerba, R., & Schönberner, D. 1998, A&A, 337, 149 Google Scholar
Trimble, V. & Sackman, I. J. 1978, MNRAS, 182, 97 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tuchman, Y., Sack, N., & Barket, Z. 1979, ApJ, 234, 217 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tutukov, A. V. & Yungelson, L. R. 2002, Astronomy Reports, 46, 667 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van den Heuvel, E. P. J. 1976, in IAU Symp. 73:Structure and Evolution of Close Binary Systems, ed. Eggleton, P., Mitton, S., & Whelan, J., (Reidel: Dordrecht), p. 35 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vassiliadis, E. & Wood, P. R. 1993, ApJ, 413, 641 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warner, B. 2003, Cataclysmic Variable Stars, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 592 Google Scholar
Webbink, R. F. 1979, in IAU Colloq. 53: White Dwarfs and Variable Degenerate Stars, eds. van Horn, H., & Weidemann, V., p. 426 Google Scholar
Wentzel, D.G. 1976 ApJ, 204, 452 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, P. R. 1974, ApJ, 190, 609 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, P. R. & Faulkner, D. J. 1986, ApJ, 307, 659 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yungelson, L., Livio, M., Tutukov, A., & Kenyon, S. J. 1995, ApJ, 447, 656 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zanstra, H. 1927, ApJ, 65, 50 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, C. Y. & Kwok, S. 1991, A&A, 250, 179 Google Scholar
Zijlstra, A. A., Lykou, F., McDonald, I., & Lagadec, E. (eds.) 2010, Asymmetric Planetary Nebulae V, Jodrell Bank Centre for AstrophysicsGoogle Scholar