Disk evaporation in a planetary nebula
Abstract
We study the Galactic bulge planetary nebula M 2-29 (for which a 3-year eclipse event of the central star has been attributed to a dust disk) using HST imaging and VLT spectroscopy, both long-slit and integral field. The central cavity of M 2-29 is filled with a decreasing, slow wind. An inner high density core is detected, with radius less than 250 AU, interpreted as a rotating gas/dust disk with a bipolar disk wind. The evaporating disk is argued to be the source of the slow wind. The central star is a source of a very fast wind (1000 km/s). An outer, partial ring is seen in the equatorial plane, expanding at 12 km/s. The azimuthal asymmetry is attributed to mass-loss modulation by an eccentric binary. M 2-29 presents a crucial point in disk evolution, where ionization causes the gas to be lost, leaving a low-mass dust disk behind.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1001.5387,
title = {Disk evaporation in a planetary nebula},
author = {K. Gesicki and A. A. Zijlstra and C. Szyszka and M. Hajduk and E. Lagadec and L. Guzman Ramirez},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1001.5387},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
11 pages, accepted for publication in "Astronomy and Astrophysics"