Related papers: Birth and early evolution of a planetary nebula
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…
The planetary nebula (PN) NGC 6778 harbors a binary central star with a short orbital period and displays two systems of fast collimated outflows. In order to assess the influence of the evolution through a common-envelope phase of the…
The origin, evolution and role of magnetic fields in the production and shaping of proto-planetary and planetary nebulae (PPNe, PNe) is a subject of active research. Most PNe and PPNe are axisymmetric with many exhibiting highly collimated…
Gravitationally-bound clusters that survive gas removal represent an unusual mode of star formation in the Milky Way and similar spiral galaxies. While forming, they can be distinguished observationally from unbound star formation by their…
Models of the origin of young stars in the Galactic Centre are facing various problems. The most promissing scenario of the star formation in a thin self-gravitating disc naturally forms stars on coherently rotating orbits, but it fails to…
We have calculated evolution of neutron star binaries towards the coalescence driven by gravitational radiation. The hydrodynamical effects as well as the general relativistic effects are important in the final phase. All corrections up to…
We reproduce the expansion velocity--radius ($V_{\rm{exp}}$--$R_{\rm{n}}$) relation in planetary nebulae by considering a simple dynamical model, in order to investigate the dynamical evolution and formation of planetary nebulae. In our…
The interstellar medium of galaxies is composed of multiple phases, including molecular, atomic, and ionized gas, as well as dust. Stars are formed within this medium from cold molecular gas clouds, which collapse due to their gravitational…
For decades we have known that the Sun lies within the Local Bubble, a cavity of low-density, high-temperature plasma surrounded by a shell of cold, neutral gas and dust. However, the precise shape and extent of this shell, the impetus and…
Most stars form in highly clustered environments within molecular clouds, but eventually disperse into the distributed stellar field population. Exactly how the stellar distribution evolves from the embedded stage into gas-free associations…
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…
In the outskirts of nearby spiral galaxies, star formation is observed in extremely low gas surface densities. Star formation in these regions, where the interstellar medium is dominated by diffuse atomic hydrogen, is difficult to explain…
Massive stars born in star clusters terminate star cluster formation by ionizing the surrounding gas. This process is considered to be prevalent in young star clusters containing massive stars. The Orion Nebula is an excellent example…
Young binaries within dense molecular clouds are subject to dynamical friction from ambient gas. Consequently, their orbits decay, with both the separation and period decreasing in time. A simple analytic expression is derived for this…
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…
Neutron stars and stellar-mass black holes are the remnants of massive stars, which ended their lives in supernova explosions. These exotic objects can only be studied in relatively rare cases. If they are interacting with close companions…
Stars are commonly formed in binary systems, which provide a natural laboratory for studying planet formation in extreme conditions. In our first paper (Paper I) of a series Xie et al. (2011), we have shown that the intermediate stage -…
Most stars are born in rich young stellar clusters (YSCs) embedded in giant molecular clouds. The most massive stars live out their short lives there, profoundly influencing their natal environments by ionizing HII regions, inflating…
The fates of planetary systems provide unassailable insights into their formation and represent rich cross-disciplinary dynamical laboratories. Mounting observations of post-main-sequence planetary systems necessitate a complementary level…
Recent surveys of star forming regions have shown that most stars, and probably all massive stars, are born in dense stellar clusters. The mechanism by which a molecular cloud fragments to form several hundred to thousands of individual…