Related papers: Molecules as Tracers of PN Structure
High resolution images at different wavelengths show the common presence of structures and microstructures in planetary nebulae (PNe), which are not well incorporated to the existing models for the formation of these objects. We summarize…
This paper - the first of a short series dedicated to the long-stan ding astronomical problem of de-projecting the bi-dimensional apparent morpholog y of a three-dimensional mass of gas - focuses on the density distribution in real…
CO emission, tracing the molecular content and distribution in galaxies, is a privileged tool to trace gas towards the nucleus, since the HI tracer is in general depleted there. A review is done of recent CO line observations, with…
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…
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…
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…
Many stars are surrounded by disks of dusty debris formed in the collisions of asteroids, comets and dwarf planets. But is gas also released in such events? Observations at submm wavelengths of the archetypal debris disk around $\beta$…
Massive stars influence their parental molecular cloud, and it has long been suspected that the development of hydrodynamical instabilities can compress or fragment the cloud. Identifying such instabilities has proved difficult. It has been…
Molecular clouds are prime locations to study the process of star formation. These clouds contain filamentary structures and cores, which are crucial sites for the formation of young stars. The star-formation process has been investigated…
The relics of building blocks that made stellar halo and bulge are yet to be discovered unless they were completely disrupted throughout the history of the Galaxy. Here we suggest that about 25% of the Milky Way globular clusters have…
We have studied the effect of the mass of the central star (CS) on the gas evolution during the planetary nebula (PN) phase. We have performed numerical simulations of PN formation using CS tracks for six stellar core masses corresponding…
The central kpc of barred galaxies exhibits a wealth of morphological information on different components with clear dynamical consequences. These include nuclear rings, spirals, bars, and more. We argue that this morphology is driven by…
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,…
I point to an interesting similarity in the morphology and some non-dimensional quantities between pairs of X-ray-deficient bubbles in clusters of galaxies and pairs of optical-deficient bubbles in planetary nebulae (PNs). This similarity…
The interplay between dust and molecules is of fundamental importance in early galaxy evolution. First we present the prediction for the dust emission from forming galaxies. Then we discuss the observational strategy for molecules in early…
Multiple stellar populations in the Milky Way globular clusters manifest themselves with a large variety. Although chemical abundance variations in light elements, including He, are ubiquitous, the amount of these variations is different in…
This work explores the morphology and dynamical properties of cores within rich superclusters, highlighting their role as transitional structures in the large-scale structure of the Universe. Using projected and radial velocity…
I review observational studies of the large-scale star formation process in nearby galaxies. A wealth of new multi-wavelength data provide an unprecedented view on the interplay of the interstellar medium and (young) stellar populations on…
Astrophysical outflows treated initially as spherically symmetric often show evidence for asymmetry once seen at higher resolution. The preponderance of aspherical and multipolar planetary nebulae (PN) and pre-planetary nebulae (PPN) was…
Planetary Nebulae (PNe) have been used satisfactory to test the effects of stellar evolution on the Galactic chemical environment. Moreover, a link exists between nebular morphology and stellar populations and evolution. We present the…