An Interacting Binary System Powers Precessing Outflows of an Evolved Star
Abstract
Stars are generally spherical, yet their gaseous envelopes often appear non-spherical when ejected near the end of their lives. This quirk is most notable during the planetary nebula phase when these envelopes become ionized. Interactions among stars in a binary system are suspected to cause the asymmetry. In particular, a precessing accretion disk around a companion is believed to launch point-symmetric jets, as seen in the prototype Fleming 1. Our discovery of a post common-envelope binary nucleus in Fleming 1 confirms that this scenario is highly favorable. Similar binary interactions are therefore likely to explain these kinds of outflows in a large variety of systems.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1211.2200,
title = {An Interacting Binary System Powers Precessing Outflows of an Evolved Star},
author = {Henri M. J. Boffin and Brent Miszalski and Thomas Rauch and David Jones and Romano L. M. Corradi and Ralf Napiwotzki and Avril C. Day-Jones and Joachim Koeppen},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1211.2200},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
Supplementary material and high resolution images are available from http://www.eso.org/~hboffin/Fg1/