Related papers: Dust and molecules in extra-galactic planetary neb…
The main goal of this thesis is to unveil some questions related to the formation of complex fullerene-based molecules in space, with the aim of resolving some key problems in astrophysics. The unexpected detections of fullerenes and…
The study of extragalactic planetary nebulae (EPN) is a rapidly expanding field. The advent of powerful new instrumentation such as the PN spectrograph has led to an avalanche of new EPN discoveries both within and between galaxies. We now…
Low- and intermediate-mass stars are one of the important dust sources in the interstellar medium (ISM) of galaxies. The compositions of dust ejected from these stars are likely to affect those in the ISM. We investigate dust in…
Galactic and extragalactic abundance studies of H II regions, planetary nebulae, and supernova remnants are compiled and their implications briefly reviewed. Galaxy global metallicity appears to be related directly to total mass and…
Many complex organic molecules and inorganic solid-state compounds have been observed in the circumstellar shell of stars (both C-rich and O-rich) in the transition phase between Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars and Planetary Nebulae…
A sample of 25 IR-bright planetary nebulae (PNe) towards the Galactic bulge is analysed through 8-13um spectroscopy. The classification of the warm-dust emission features provides a measure of the C/O chemical balance, and represents the…
The high mass loss rates of stars in their asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stage of evolution is one of the most important pathways for mass return from stars to the ISM. In the planetary nebulae (PNe) phase, the ejected material is…
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…
In order to study whether there is any correlation between nuclear activities, gas content, and the environment where galaxies reside, we have obtained optical and millimetric spectra for a well-defined sample of intermediate Hubble type…
We present spectroscopy of nine planetary nebulae (PNe) in the outskirts of M31, all but one obtained with the 10.4m GTC telescope. These sources extend our previous study of the oxygen abundance gradient of M31 to galactocentric radii as…
Clouds containing molecular dark matter in quantities relevant for star formation may exist in minihaloes of the type of cold dark matter included in many cosmological simulations or in the regions of some galaxies extending far beyond…
We explore the effect of galactic environment on properties of molecular clouds. Using clouds formed in a large-scale galactic disc simulation, we measure the observable properties from synthetic column density maps. We confirm that a…
Planetary nebulae (PNe) exist in a range of different morphologies, from very simple and symmetric round shells, to elliptical, bipolar, and even quadrupolar shapes. They present extremely complex ensembles of filaments, knots, ansae, and…
Late stages of stellar evolution are characterized by copious mass-loss events whose signature is the formation of circumstellar envelopes (CSE). Planck multi-frequency measurements have provided relevant information on a sample of Galactic…
The outer Galaxy is characterized by a lower metallicity than regions near the Sun, suggesting differences in the formation and survival of molecules in star-forming regions. To understand chemical evolution across the Milky Way, deriving…
Fullerenes have recently been identified in space and they may play a significant role in the gas and dust budget of various astrophysical objects including planetary nebulae (PNe), reflection nebulae (RNe) and H II regions. The tenuous…
Extragalactic planetary nebulae (xPNe) in galaxies beyond the Local Universe serve as discrete tracers for studying the element abundances and kinematics of galaxies covering a wide range of morphologies and masses at a variety of angular…
Dust particles play a major role in the formation, evolution and chemistry of interstellar clouds, stars and planetary systems. Commonly identified forms include amorphous and crystalline carbon-rich particles and silicates. Also present in…
Several galaxies, such as dwarfs and Irregulars as well as outer galactic clouds have low metallicity. At low metallicities a reduction in the amount of dust and heavy elements plays a significant role on the chemistry as well as the…
Supernovae (SNe) are considered to have a major role in dust enrichment of high redshift galaxies and, due to the short lifetimes of interstellar grains, in dust replenishment of local galaxies. Here we explore how SN dust yields depend on…