2004/10/25 by H. L. Dinerstein, Harriet L. Dinerstein, N. C. Sterling +4
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Scientific Research and Discoveries #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0410608
3 pages, to appear in Astrophysics in the Far Ultraviolet: Five Years of Discovery with FUSE, ASP Conf. series, eds. G. Sonneborn, W. Moos & B.-G. Andersson
arxiv created 2004/10/25 · openalex publication_date 2004/10/25 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The central stars of planetary nebulae (PNe) are natural targets for FUSE due to their UV brightness. The FUSE spectra of many PNe show absorption features due to circumstellar material in species ranging from H2 and neutrals in the photodissociation region (PDR) to ions resident in the H II region. We report results from a program designed to search for nebular components in the H2 Lyman and Werner resonance lines that are responsible for the fluorescent excitation of H2 in strong FUV radiation fields. Our failure to detect H2 in absorption in several PNe with strong near-infrared H2 emission indicates that the molecular material has an asymmetrical or clumpy distribution. We also detect enrichments in the s-process product Ge, find that Fe is not depleted into dust along at least one line of sight through a PN, and show that starlight fluorescence can affect the populations of the excited fine-structure levels of O I.