Related papers: Binary stars as the key to understanding planetary…
Binary stars produce an array of dramatic astrophysical phenomena. They allow us to probe stellar structure, nuclear physics, and gravitational wave physics. They also produce the powerful supernovae that allow us to measure the scale of…
Massive stars play a major role in the evolution of their host galaxies, and serve as important probes of the distant Universe. It has been established that the majority of massive stars reside in close binaries and will interact with their…
Our understanding of planetary nebulae has been significantly enhanced as a result of several recent large surveys (Parker et al., these proceedings). These new discoveries suggest that the `PN phenomenon' is in fact more heterogeneous than…
In this review I first summarize why binaries are key objects in the study of stellar populations, key objects to understand the evolution of star clusters, key objects to understand galaxies and thus the universe. I then focus on 4…
The transition from Asymptotic Giant Branch star to Planetary Nebula is short-lived and mysterious. Though it lasts only a few thousand years, it is thought to be the time when the asymmetries observed in subsequent phases arise. During…
During the last years, many observational studies have revealed that binaries play an active role in the shaping of non spherical planetary nebulae. We review the different works that lead to the direct or indirect evidence for the presence…
Two-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations are presented from the formation up to the late evolution of planetary nebula, for 6 different stellar models from 1 to 5 Mo. The hydrodynamical models use stellar evolution calculations as inner…
Asymmetric shapes and evidence for binary central stars suggest a common-envelope origin for many bipolar planetary nebulae. The bipolar components of the nebulae are observed to expand faster than the rest and the more slowly expanding…
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,…
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…
Close binary central stars of planetary nebulae (PNe) must have formed through a common envelope evolution during the giant phase experienced by one of the stars. Transfer of the angular momentum from the binary system to the envelope leads…
Close binary interactions perform a key role in the formation and shaping of planetary nebulae. However only a small fraction of Galactic planetary nebulae are known to host close binary systems. Many such systems are detectable through…
The study of the chemical composition of Planetary Nebulae in external galaxies is of paramount importance in the fields of stellar evolution and of the chemical enrichment history of galaxies. In the last years a number of spectroscopic…
Planetary nebulae (PN) represent the evolutionary fate of the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stellar envelopes, thus are ideally suited to study the chemical impact of AGB stars. Stellar evolution predict elemental enrichment through the AGB…
Planetary nebulae represent a potential late stage of stellar evolution, however the central stars (CSPNe) are relatively faint and therefore pertinent information is merely available for <20% of the Galactic sample. Consequently, the…
Binary stars are dynamical systems formed by two stars that are physically bound by the gravitational force. Binary stars are privileged laboratories, allowing one to measure the fundamental properties of stars but also potentially changing…
Considerable effort has been applied towards understanding the precise shaping mechanisms responsible for the diverse range of morphologies exhibited by planetary nebulae (PNe). A binary companion is increasingly gaining support as a…
We examine recent studies on the formation rate of planetary nebulae and find this rate to be about one-third of the formation rate of white dwarfs. This implies than only about one-third of all planetary nebulae that evolve to form white…
Planetary Nebulae are the ionised ejected envelopes surrounding the remnant cores of dying stars. Theory predicts that main-sequence stars with one to about eight times the mass of our sun may eventually form planetary nebulae. Until now no…
We show that there are strong links between certain types of asymmetrical Planetary Nebulae (PNe) and symbiotic stars. Symbiotics are binaries and several have extended optical nebulae all of which are asymmetrical and ~-40% are bipolar.…