Related papers: Planetary nebulae, tracers of stellar nucleosynthe…
Using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), we have carried out a survey of candidate preplanetary nebulae (PPNs). We report here our discoveries of objects having well-resolved geometrical structures, and use the large sample of PPNs now…
This paper is the fourth and final report on a project designed to study carbon abundances in a sample of planetary nebulae representing a broad range in progenitor mass and metallicity. We present newly acquired optical spectrophotometric…
Close binary central stars of planetary nebulae are key in constraining the poorly-understood common-envelope phase of evolution, which in turn is critical in understanding the formation of a wide-range of astrophysical phenomena (including…
Why 80% of planetary nebulae are not spherical is not yet understood. The Binary Hypothesis states that a companion to the progenitor of the central star of a planetary nebula is required to shape the nebula and even for a planetary nebula…
We present new analytical solutions for the dynamics of planetary nebulae. These equations consider the temporal variation of the mechanical luminosity as well as the common envelope evolution scenario. By comparing a database of nebulae…
Planetary nebulae (PNe) have the potential to revolutionize our understanding of extragalactic stellar populations. Indeed, in many systems, bright PNe are the only individual objects identifiable from the ground, and, even more often, they…
Planetary nebulae (PNe) and their central stars (CSs) are ideal tools to test evolutionary theory: photospheric properties of their exciting stars give stringent constraints for theoretical predictions of stellar evolution. The nebular…
I propose that some irregular `messy' planetary nebulae owe their morphologies to triple-stellar evolution where tight binary systems evolve inside and/or on the outskirts the envelope of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars. In some cases…
Planetary nebulae (PNe) constitute an important tool to study the chemical evolution of the Milky Way and other galaxies, probing the nucleosynthesis processes, abundance gradients and the chemical enrichment of the interstellar medium. In…
Oxygen and carbon-rich AGB stars - and objects directly polluted by them - are excellent laboratories to investigate the nucleosynthesis and mixing processes occurring during the later phases of the of low- and intermediate-mass star…
There is no quantitative theory to explain why a high 80% of all planetary nebulae are non-spherical. The Binary Hypothesis states that a companion to the progenitor of a central star of planetary nebula is required to shape the nebula and…
The kinematic and dynamical properties of galaxy stellar halos are difficult to measure because of the faint surface brightness that characterizes these regions. Spiral galaxies can be probed using the radio HI emission; on the contrary,…
Planetary nebulae are traditionally considered to represent the final evolutionary stage of all intermediate-mass stars ($\sim$0.7-8Msol). Recent evidence seems to contradict this picture. In particular, since the launch of the Hubble Space…
Planetary Nebulae represent a powerful window into the evolution of low-intermediate mass stars that have undergone extensive mass-loss. The nebula manifests itself in an extremely wide variety of shapes, but exactly how the mass lost is…
We present the second part of an optical spectroscopic study of planetary nebulae in the LMC and SMC. The first paper, Leisy & Dennefeld (1996), discussed the CNO cycle for those objects where C abundances were available. In this paper we…
A number of efforts are underway to detect close binary stars in planetary nebulae. The primary goal of these studies is to determine the binary fraction of central stars. The next stage is a detailed analysis of the binaries to determine…
In this review we address the progress that has been made toward the understanding the population of Magellanic Cloud planetary nebulae since the last Magellanic Cloud Symposium. Planetary nebulae in the Clouds are not only important as key…
We discuss the basic physical model and the relevant processes responsible for creating and shaping planetary nebulae out of a cool AGB wind envelope. We show that a hydrodynamical treatment along the upper AGB leads quite naturally to more…
We present a new method to identify and probe planetary companions of stars in the Galactic Bulge and Magellanic Clouds using gravitational microlensing. While spectroscopic studies of these planets is well beyond current observational…
The results from a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) snapshot survey of post-AGB objects are shown. The aim of the survey is to complement existing HST images of PPN and to connect various types of nebulosities with physical and chemical…