Related papers: Challenges faced by current Galactic planetary neb…

The sheer size of high-accuracy, multi-band photometry, spectroscopy, astrometry and seismic data that space missions like Kepler, Gaia, PLATO, TESS, JWST and ground-based facilities under development such as MOONS, WEAVE and the LSST will…

Stellar multiplicity is among the oldest and richest problems in astrophysics. Binary stars are a cornerstone of stellar mass and radius measurements that underpin modern stellar evolutionary models. Binaries are the progenitors of many of…

In this review I present the binary model for the shaping of planetary nebulae (PNe) as I view it, in the context of historical evolution of other models for the shaping of PNe over more than 30 years. In describing the binary model, I…

Planetary Nebulae (PN) emit enormous amount of energy in several emission lines. Measuring the line-flux for PNe in a given stellar population, the Planetary Nebula Luminosity Function (PNLF) can be compiled. Surveys of PNe revealed that…

Planetary nebula are useful kinematic tracers of the stars in all galaxy types. I review recent observationally-driven developments in the study of galaxy mass profiles. These have yielded surprising results on spiral galaxy disk masses and…

The diffuse extended outer regions of galaxies are hard to study because they are faint, with typical surface brightness of 1% of the dark night sky. We can tackle this problem by using resolved star tracers which remain visible at large…

Starting from the Strasbourg ESO Catalogue (SEC) of Planetary Nebulae (PNe), the largest PNe compilation available with ~ 1500 objects, we undertook a comprehensive study of the whole PN population, never carried out so far, only using…

The measurement of chemical abundances in planetary nebulae in nearby galaxies is now relatively straightforward. The challenge is to use these chemical abundances to infer the chemical evolution of their host galaxies. At this point, our…

We present a new synthetic model to follow the evolution of a planetary nebula (PN) and its central star, starting from the onset of AGB phase up to the white dwarf cooling sequence. The model suitably combines various analytical…

Planetary nebulae (PNe) consist of an ionized envelope surrounding a hot central star (CSPN) that emits mostly at ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths. Ultraviolet observations, therefore, provide important information on both the CSPN and the…

Diagnostic diagrams of electron density - excitation for a sample of 613 planetary nebulae are presented. The present extensive sample allows the definition of new statistical limits for the distribution of planetary nebulae in the log…

Pulsars are highly magnetized rotating neutron stars, emitting in a broad electromagnetic energy range. Reproducing the observed pulsars population refines our understanding of their formation and evolution scenarios as well as their…

The Planetary Nebula Spectrograph is a dedicated instrument for measuring radial velocity of individual Planetary Nebulae (PNe) in galaxies. This new instrument is providing crucial data with which to probe the structure of dark halos in…

During the past 20 years, the idea that non-spherical planetary nebulae (PN) may need a binary or planetary interaction to be shaped was discussed by various authors. It is now generally agreed that the varied morphologies of PN cannot be…

Radio campaigns using maser stellar beacons have provided crucial information to characterize Galactic stellar populations. Currently, the Bulge Asymmetries and Dynamical Evolution (BAaDE) project is surveying infrared (IR) color-selected…

We review results from cosmic X-ray surveys of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) over the past ~ 15 yr that have dramatically improved our understanding of growing supermassive black holes in the distant universe. First, we discuss the utility…

The study of planetary nebulae (PNe) in the nearby post-merger elliptical galaxy NGC 5128 (Cen A) now has a history of nearly twenty years. As the nearest giant elliptical, it is a prime target for extragalactic PN studies. These studies…

Recent advances in stellar population modelling and avalanches of data from mega-surveys have revived the interest in techniques to extract information about galaxy evolution from integrated spectra. This contribution provides an informal…

Extragalactic X-ray surveys over the past decade have dramatically improved understanding of the majority populations of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) over most of the history of the Universe. Here we briefly highlight some of the exciting…

While there has been significant progress in our understanding of the origin and evolu-tion of planetary nebulae in the last 50 years, there remain several unsolved problems. These include the true 3D morphological structure of the nebulae,…