2009/07/14 by B. Miszalski, A. Acker, Q. A. Parker +1 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Binary number #Bulge #Common envelope #Doubly ionized oxygen #Emission spectrum #Envelope (radar) #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Physics #Planetary nebula #Spectral line #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.GA #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.1051/0004-6361/200912176
Accepted for publication in A&A
arxiv created 2009/07/14 · openalex publication_date 2009/07/16 · arxiv updated 2015/05/13 · openalex created_date 2021/02/01 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Considerable effort has been applied towards understanding the precise shaping mechanisms responsible for the diverse range of morphologies exhibited by planetary nebulae (PNe). At least 10–20% of PNe have central stars (CSPN) with a close binary companion thought responsible for heavily shaping the ejected PN during common-envelope (CE) evolution, however morphological studies of the few available examples found no clear distinction between PNe and post-CE PNe. The discovery of several new binary central stars (CSPN) from the OGLE-III photometric variability survey has significantly increased the number of post-CE PNe available for morphological analysis to 30 PNe. High quality Gemini South narrow-band images are presented for most of the OGLE sample, while some previously known post-CE PNe are reanalysed with images from the literature. Nearly 30% of nebulae have canonical bipolar morphologies, however this could be as high as 60% once inclination effects are incorporated with the aid of geometric models. This is the strongest observational evidence yet linking CE evolution to bipolar morphologies. A higher than average proportion of the sample shows low-ionisation knots, filaments or jets suggesting they have a binary origin. These features are also common in nebulae around emission-line nuclei which may be explained by speculative binary formation scenarios for H-deficient CSPN.