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Birth and early evolution of a planetary nebula

Nature volume 392, pages 469–471 (1998)Cite this article

Abstract

The final expulsion of gas by a star as it forms a planetary nebula — the ionized shell of gas often observed surrounding a young white dwarf — is one of the most poorly understood stages of stellar evolution1,2. Such nebulae form extremely rapidly (about 100 years for the ionization) and so the formation process is inherently difficult to observe. Particularly puzzling is how a spherical star can produce a highly asymmetric nebula with collimated outflows. Here we report optical observations of the Stingray nebula3,4, which has become an ionized planetary nebula within the past few decades5. We find that the collimated outflows are already evident, and we have identified the nebular structure that focuses the outflows. We have also found a companion star, reinforcing previous suspicions that binary companions play an important role in shaping planetary nebulae and changing the direction of successive outflows6.

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Figure 1: Hubble Space Telescope narrow-band images of He3-1357, the Stingray nebula.
Figure 2: An [O iii] 5,007-Å image with various morphological features indicated.

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Acknowledgements

We thank T. Heckman for suggestions, M. Livio for discussions, and A. Frank for comments. This work is based on observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Orbital Sciences Corporation, 7500 Greenway Center Drive, No. 700, Greenbelt, 20770, Maryland, USA

    Matthew Bobrowsky

  2. Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, 21218, Maryland, USA

    Kailash C. Sahu

  3. Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Koramangala, 560034, Bangalore, India

    M. Parthasarathy

  4. ISO Science Operations Centre, Villafranca del Castillo, Apartado de Correos, 28080 50727, Madrid, Spain

    Pedro García-Lario

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  1. Matthew Bobrowsky
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  2. Kailash C. Sahu
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  3. M. Parthasarathy
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  4. Pedro García-Lario
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Correspondence to Matthew Bobrowsky.

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Bobrowsky, M., Sahu, K., Parthasarathy, M. et al. Birth and early evolution of a planetary nebula. Nature 392, 469–471 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/33092

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