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Water-maser emission from a planetary nebula with a magnetized torus

Nature volume 414, pages 284–286 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

A star like the Sun becomes a planetary nebula towards the end of its life, when the envelope ejected during the earlier giant phase becomes photoionized as the surface of the remnant star reaches a temperature of ∼30,000 K. The spherical symmetry of the giant phase is lost in the transition to a planetary nebula, when non-spherical shells and powerful jets develop. Molecules that were present in the giant envelope are progressively destroyed by the radiation1. The water-vapour masers that are typical of the giant envelopes2,3 therefore are not expected to persist in planetary nebulae1,4. Here we report the detection of water-maser emission from the planetary nebula K3-35. The masers are in a magnetized torus with a radius of about 85 astronomical units and are also found at the surprisingly large distance of about 5,000 astronomical units from the star, in the tips of bipolar lobes of gas. The precessing jets from K3-35 are probably involved in the excitation of the distant masers, although their existence is nevertheless puzzling. We infer that K3-35 is being observed at the very moment of its transformation from a giant star to a planetary nebula.

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Figure 1: Water-maser and OH-maser emission in the young planetary nebula K3-35.
Figure 2: Spectra of the OH 1,665-MHz and 1,667-MHz lines in K3-35.

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Acknowledgements

We thank L. F. Rodríguez and P. Ho for comments. NRAO is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. G.A., L.F.M. and J.M.T. are supported partially by MCYT, Spain. Y.G. acknowledges support from DGAPA, UNAM and CONACyT, Mexico. G.A. acknowledges support from MEC, Spain.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, CSIC, Apdo. Correos 3004, Granada, E-18080, Spain

    L. F. Miranda & G. Anglada

  2. Instituto de Astronomía UNAM, Campus Morelia, A.P. 3-72 (Xangari), Michoacán, c.p. 58089, Morelia, Mexico

    Y. Gómez

  3. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, MS-42, Cambridge, 02138, Massachusetts, USA

    G. Anglada

  4. Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC/CSIC) and Instituto de Ciencias de Espacio (CSIC), Edifici Nexus, C/Gran Capità 2-4, Barcelona, E-08034, Spain

    J. M. Torrelles

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  1. L. F. Miranda
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  4. J. M. Torrelles
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Correspondence to L. F. Miranda.

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Miranda, L., Gómez, Y., Anglada, G. et al. Water-maser emission from a planetary nebula with a magnetized torus. Nature 414, 284–286 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35104518

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