6,742 research outputs found
The Cocoon Nebula and its ionizing star: do stellar and nebular abundances agree?
(Abridged) Main sequence massive stars embedded in an HII region should have
the same chemical abundances as the surrounding nebular gas+dust. The Cocoon
nebula, a close-by Galactic HII region ionized by a narrow line B0.5 V single
star (BD+46 3474), is an ideal target to perform a detailed comparison of
nebular and stellar abundances in the same Galactic HII region. We investigate
the chemical content of O, N and S in the Cocoon nebula from two different
points of view: an empirical analysis of the nebular spectrum and a detailed
spectroscopic analysis of its ionizing B-type star using state-of-the-art
stellar atmosphere modeling. By comparing the stellar and nebular abundances,
we aim to indirectly address the long-standing problem of the discrepancy found
between abundances obtained from collisionally excited lines (CELs) and optical
recombination lines in photoionized nebulae. We collect spatially resolved
spectroscopy of the Cocoon nebula and a high resolution optical spectrum of its
ionizing star. Standard nebular techniques are used to compute the physical
conditions and gaseous abundances of O, N and S. We perform a self-consistent
spectroscopic abundance analysis of BD+46 3474 based on the atmosphere code
FASTWIND to determine the stellar parameters and Si, O, and N abundances. The
Cocoon nebula and its ionizing star, located at a distance of 800+-80 pc, have
a very similar chemical composition as the Orion nebula and other B-type stars
in the solar vicinity. This result agrees with the high degree of homogeneity
of the present-day composition of the solar neighbourhood as derived from the
study of the local cold-gas ISM. The comparison of stellar and nebular CELs
abundances in the Cocoon nebula indicates that O and N gas+dust nebular values
are in better agreement with stellar ones assuming small temperature
fluctuations, of the order of those found in the Orion nebula.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. 13 pages, 7 tables and 6 figure
A search for hydrogenated fullerenes in fullerene-containing planetary nebulae
Detections of C60 and C70 fullerenes in planetary nebulae (PNe) of the
Magellanic Clouds and of our own Galaxy have raised the idea that other forms
of carbon such as hydrogenated fullerenes (fulleranes like C60H36 and C60H18),
buckyonions, and carbon nanotubes, may be widespread in the Universe. Here we
present VLT/ISAAC spectra (R ~600) in the 2.9-4.1 microns spectral region for
the Galactic PNe Tc 1 and M 1-20, which have been used to search for
fullerene-based molecules in their fullerene-rich circumstellar environments.
We report the non-detection of the most intense infrared bands of several
fulleranes around ~3.4-3.6 microns in both PNe. We conclude that if fulleranes
are present in the fullerene-containing circumstellar environments of these
PNe, then they seem to be by far less abundant than C60 and C70. Our
non-detections together with the (tentative) fulleranes detection in the
proto-PN IRAS 01005+7910 suggest that fulleranes may be formed in the short
transition phase between AGB stars and PNe but they are quickly destroyed by
the UV radiation field from the central star.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics (7 pages, 3
figures, and 3 Tables
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