Related papers: Planetary nebulae seen with TESS: Discovery of new…
Context. At least 492 central stars of Galactic planetary nebulae (CSPNs) have been assigned spectral types. Since many CSPNs are faint, these classification efforts are frequently made at low spectral resolution. However, the stellar…
Progress in understanding the formation and evolution of planetary nebulae (PN) has been restricted by a paucity of well-determined central star masses. To address this deficiency we aim to (i) significantly increase the number of known…
The Kepler Observatory offers unprecedented photometric precision (<1 mmag) and cadence for monitoring the central stars of planetary nebulae, allowing the detection of tiny periodic light curve variations, a possible signature of binarity.…
We examine the images of hundreds of planetary nebulae (PNe) and find that for about one in six PNe the morphology is too `messy' to be accounted for by models of stellar binary interaction. We speculate that interacting triple stellar…
Whether planetary nebulae (PNe) are predominantly the product of binary stellar evolution as some population synthesis models (PSM) suggest remains an open question. Around 50 short period binary central stars ($P\sim1$ d) are known, but…
Context: In recent years mid- and far infrared spectra of planetary nebulae have been analysed and lead to more accurate abundances. It may be expected that these better abundances lead to a better understanding of the evolution of these…
The combined strength of asteroseismology and empirical stellar basic parameter determinations for in-depth asteroseismic analysis of massive pulsators in eclipsing binaries shows great potential for treating the challenging and mysterious…
New observations are presented of four evolved objects that display long, multi-year variations in their light curves. These are interpreted as good evidence of their binary nature, with the modulation caused by the barycenter motion of the…
The shaping of the nebula is currently one of the outstanding unsolved problems in planetary nebula (PN) research. Several mechanisms have been proposed, most of which require a binary companion. However, direct evidence for a binary…
The NASA TESS mission has discovered many transiting planets orbiting bright nearby stars, and high-resolution imaging studies have revealed that a number of these exoplanet hosts reside in binary or multiple star systems. In such systems,…
It is now clear that central star binarity plays a key role in the formation and evolution of planetary nebulae, with a significant fraction playing host to close-binary central stars which have survived one or more common envelope…
The substantial number of binary central stars of planetary nebulae (CSPNe) now known ($\sim$50) has revealed a strong connection between binarity and some morphological features including jets and low-ionisation structures. However, some…
The role of central star binarity in the shaping of planetary nebulae (PNe) has been the subject of much debate, with single stars believed to be incapable of producing the most highly collimated morphologies. However, observational support…
Planetary nebulae (PNe) are circumstellar gas ejected during an intense mass-losing phase in the the lives of asymptotic giant branch stars. PNe have a stunning variety of shapes, most of which are not spherically symmetric. The debate over…
It is already known that about 10% of central stars of PNe are very short-period binaries (hours to days), which are detected through photometric variations. These must have been formed through common-envelope interactions in initially wide…
We discuss prospects of identifying and characterizing black hole (BH) companions to normal stars on tight but detached orbits, using photometric data from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). We focus on the following two…
Planetary nebulae are traditionally considered to represent the final evolutionary stage of all intermediate-mass stars ($\sim$0.7-8Msol). Recent evidence seems to contradict this picture. In particular, since the launch of the Hubble Space…
It is widely believed that central star binarity plays an important role in the formation and evolution of aspherical planetary nebulae, however observational support for this hypothesis is lacking. Here, we present the most recent results…
The extremely accurate estimates of stellar variability and radial velocity in the Gaia Data Release 3 (Gaia DR3) have enabled us to examine the close binarity and radial velocity (RV) of central stars (CSs) of planetary nebulae (PNe). This…
During its 2-year Prime Mission, TESS observed over 232,000 stars at a 2-min cadence across ~70% of the sky. These data provide a record of photometric variability across a range of astrophysically interesting time scales, probing stellar…