TY - JOUR
T1 - The origin and shaping of planetary nebulae
T2 - Putting the binary hypothesis to the test
AU - De Marco, Orsola
N1 - Copyright 2009 by University of Chicago Press. Originally published in Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
PY - 2009/4
Y1 - 2009/4
N2 - Planetary nebulae (PNs) are circumstellar gas ejected during an intense mass-losing phase in the lives of asymptotic giant branch stars. PNs have a stunning variety of shapes, most of which are not spherically symmetric. The debate over what makes and shapes the circumstellar gas of these evolved, intermediate mass stars has raged for two decades. Today the community is reaching a consensus that single stars cannot trivially manufacture PNs and impart to them nonspherical shapes and that a binary companion, possibly even a substellar one, might be needed in a majority of cases. This theoretical conjecture has, however, not been tested observationally. In this review we discuss the problem from both the theoretical and observational standpoints, explaining the obstacles that stand in the way of a clean observational test and ways to ameliorate the situation. We also discuss indirect tests of this hypothesis and its implications for stellar and galactic astrophysics.
AB - Planetary nebulae (PNs) are circumstellar gas ejected during an intense mass-losing phase in the lives of asymptotic giant branch stars. PNs have a stunning variety of shapes, most of which are not spherically symmetric. The debate over what makes and shapes the circumstellar gas of these evolved, intermediate mass stars has raged for two decades. Today the community is reaching a consensus that single stars cannot trivially manufacture PNs and impart to them nonspherical shapes and that a binary companion, possibly even a substellar one, might be needed in a majority of cases. This theoretical conjecture has, however, not been tested observationally. In this review we discuss the problem from both the theoretical and observational standpoints, explaining the obstacles that stand in the way of a clean observational test and ways to ameliorate the situation. We also discuss indirect tests of this hypothesis and its implications for stellar and galactic astrophysics.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=67650691259&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1086/597765
DO - 10.1086/597765
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:67650691259
VL - 121
SP - 316
EP - 342
JO - Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
JF - Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
SN - 0004-6280
IS - 878
ER -