Structure

Extract

My first task is to give summaries of the sessions on observations of the spectra of planetary nebulae and on the spectra of the central stars.

About the spectra of planetary nebulae there is little more to say than that the observations of line intensities in the range from the near ultraviolet to the near infrared have made impressive progress. Most important is the extension of the observations into the infrared which has led to the discovery by Gillet, Low and Stein of unexpectedly high intensities in the continuous spectrum of NGC 7027 between 4μ and 14μ (75 to 22 THz). In this respect NGC 7027 and the Seyfert galaxy NGC 1068 resemble each other. Similarity of the compositions of the emission-line spectra of these two objects has been noted long ago; some lines of low ionization – [O II], [S II] –, however, are stronger in the Seyfert galaxies. The physical significance of the similarity of the infrared continua is not clear at this time, but I see no reason to reject the classification of NGC 7027 as a planetary nebula. It has a very irregular brightness distribution with much structure, but an outline which is roughly elliptical and the usual expansion pattern with a velocity of expansion of 21 km/sec.