416 research outputs found
It's a wonderful tail: the mass loss history of Mira
Recent observations of the Mira AB binary system have revealed a surrounding
arc-like structure and a stream of material stretching 2 degrees away in
opposition to the arc. The alignment of the proper motion vector and the
arc-like structure shows the structures to be a bow shock and accompanying
tail. We have successfully hydrodynamically modelled the bow shock and tail as
the interaction between the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) wind launched from
Mira A and the surrounding interstellar medium. Our simulations show that the
wake behind the bow shock is turbulent: this forms periodic density variations
in the tail similar to those observed. We investigate the possiblity of
mass-loss variations, but find that these have limited effect on the tail
structure. The tail is estimated to be approximately 450,000 years old, and is
moving with a velocity close to that of Mira itself. We suggest that the
duration of the high mass-loss phase on the AGB may have been underestimated.
Finally, both the tail curvature and the rebrightening at large distance can be
qualitatively understood if Mira recently entered the Local Bubble. This is
estimated to have occured 17 pc downstream from its current location.Comment: 12 pages, 3 colour figures, accepted by ApJ Part II (Letters
Vortices in the wakes of AGB stars
Vortices have been postulated at a range of size scales in the universe
including at the stellar size-scale. Whilst hydrodynamically simulating the
wind from an asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star moving through and sweeping up
its surrounding interstellar medium (ISM), we have found vortices on the size
scale of 10^-1 pc to 10^1 pc in the wake of the star. These vortices appear to
be the result of instabilities at the head of the bow shock formed upstream of
the AGB star. The instabilities peel off downstream and form vortices in the
tail of AGB material behind the bow shock, mixing with the surrounding ISM. We
suggest such structures are visible in the planetary nebula Sh 2-188.Comment: ApJL accepted, preprint form, 13 pages including 4 pages of figure
The interaction of planetary nebulae and their AGB progenitors with the interstellar medium
Interaction with the Interstellar Medium (ISM) cannot be ignored in
understanding planetary nebula (PN) evolution and shaping. In an effort to
understand the range of shapes observed in the outer envelopes of PNe, we have
run a comprehensive set of three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations, from the
beginning of the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) superwind phase until the end of
the post--AGB/PN phase. A 'triple-wind' model is used, including a slow AGB
wind, fast post--AGB wind and third wind reflecting the linear movement through
the ISM. A wide range of stellar velocities, mass-loss rates and ISM densities
have been considered. We find ISM interaction strongly affects outer PN
structures, with the dominant shaping occuring during the AGB phase. The
simulations predict four stages of PN--ISM interaction whereby the PN is
initially unaffected (1), then limb-brightened in the direction of motion (2),
then distorted with the star moving away from the geometric centre (3) and
finally so distorted that the object is no longer recognisable as a PN and may
not be classed as such (4). Parsec-size shells around PN are predicted to be
common. The structure and brightness of ancient PNe is largely determined by
the ISM interaction, caused by rebrightening during the second stage; this
effect may address the current discrepancies in Galactic PN abundance. The
majority of PNe will have tail structures. Evidence for strong interaction is
found for all known planetary nebulae in globular clusters.Comment: 22 pages, 16 figures, accepted by MNRAS (consists of 14 page journal
paper and 8 page online-only appendix). Email C Wareing for high quality PDF
versio
Sh2-188: a model for a speedy PN
Sh2-188 is thought to be an ancient planetary nebula in the galactic disk. It
appears to be one-sided with recent observations revealing structure behind the
filamentary limb. We postulate that Sh2-188 is interacting with the ISM and
simulate it in terms of a ``triple-wind'' model comprising of the usual
``fast'' and ``slow'' interacting stellar winds plus the wind due to motion
through the ISM. We have run simulations at various velocities of the central
star relative to the ISM and find that a high velocity of 125 km/s best
approximates the observed structure. We also suggest that Sh2-188 is younger
than previously thought and that much of the mass lost on the AGB has been
swept downstream.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, Proceedings of the "Stellar end products"
workshop, 13-15 April 2005, Granada, Spain, ed. M.A. Perez-Torres. To appear
in Vol. 77 (Jan 2006) of MmSAI. Reference corrected, start of 2nd paragraph
in discussion corrected, image scaling correcte
Probing the Magnetized Interstellar Medium Surrounding the Planetary Nebula Sh 2-216
We present 1420 MHz polarization images of a 2.5 X 2.5 degree region around
the planetary nebula (PN) Sh 2-216. The images are taken from the Canadian
Galactic Plane Survey (CGPS). An arc of low polarized intensity appears
prominently in the north-east portion of the visible disk of Sh 2-216,
coincident with the optically identified interaction region between the PN and
the interstellar medium (ISM). The arc contains structural variations down to
the ~1 arcminute resolution limit in both polarized intensity and polarization
angle. Several polarization-angle "knots" appear along the arc. By comparison
of the polarization angles at the centers of the knots and the mean
polarization angle outside Sh 2-216, we estimate the rotation measure (RM)
through the knots to be -43 +/- 10 rad/m^2. Using this estimate for the RM and
an estimate of the electron density in the shell of Sh 2-216, we derive a
line-of-sight magnetic field in the interaction region of 5.0 +/- 2.0 microG.
We believe it more likely the observed magnetic field is interstellar than
stellar, though we cannot completely dismiss the latter possibility. We
interpret our observations via a simple model which describes the ISM magnetic
field around Sh 2-216, and comment on the potential use of old PNe as probes of
the magnetized ISM.Comment: 25 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical
Journa
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Krylov iterative methods applied to multidimensional S[sub n] calculations in the presence of material discontinuities
We show that a Krylov iterative meihod, preconditioned with DSA, can be used to efficiently compute solutions to diffusive problems with discontinuities in material properties. We consider a lumped, linear discontinuous discretization of the S N transport equation with a 'partially consistent' DSA preconditioner. The Krylov method can be implemented in terms of the original S N source iteration coding with little modification. Results from numerical experiments show that replacing source iteration with a preconditioned Krylov method can efficiently solve problems that are virtually intractable with accelerated source iteration. Key Words: Krylov iterative methods, discrete ordinates, deterministic transport methods, diffusion synthetic acceleratio
The interface between the stellar wind and interstellar medium around R Cassiopeiae revealed by far-infrared imaging
The circumstellar dust shells of intermediate initial-mass (about 1 to 8
solar masses) evolved stars are generated by copious mass loss during the
asymptotic giant branch phase. The density structure of their circumstellar
shell is the direct evidence of mass loss processes, from which we can
investigate the nature of mass loss. We used the AKARI Infrared Astronomy
Satellite and the Spitzer Space Telescope to obtain the surface brightness maps
of an evolved star R Cas at far-infrared wavelengths, since the temperature of
dust decreases as the distance from the star increases and one needs to probe
dust at lower temperatures, i.e., at longer wavelengths. The observed shell
structure and the star's known proper motion suggest that the structure
represents the interface regions between the dusty wind and the interstellar
medium. The deconvolved structures are fitted with the analytic bow shock
structure to determine the inclination angle of the bow shock cone. Our data
show that (1) the bow shock cone of 1 - 5 x 10^-5 solar masses (dust mass) is
inclined at 68 degrees with respect to the plane of the sky, and (2) the dust
temperature in the bow shock cone is raised to more than 20 K by collisional
shock interaction in addition to the ambient interstellar radiation field. By
comparison between the apex vector of the bow shock and space motion vector of
the star we infer that there is a flow of interstellar medium local to R Cas
whose flow velocity is at least 55.6 km/s, consistent with an environment
conducive to dust heating by shock interactions.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
X Her and TX Psc: Two cases of ISM interaction with stellar winds observed by Herschel
The asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars X Her and TX Psc have been imaged at
70 and 160 microns with the PACS instrument onboard the Herschel satellite, as
part of the large MESS (Mass loss of Evolved StarS) Guaranteed Time Key
Program. The images reveal an axisymmetric extended structure with its axis
oriented along the space motion of the stars. This extended structure is very
likely to be shaped by the interaction of the wind ejected by the AGB star with
the surrounding interstellar medium (ISM). As predicted by numerical
simulations, the detailed structure of the wind-ISM interface depends upon the
relative velocity between star+wind and the ISM, which is large for these two
stars (108 and 55 km/s for X Her and TX Psc, respectively). In both cases,
there is a compact blob upstream whose origin is not fully elucidated, but that
could be the signature of some instability in the wind-ISM shock. Deconvolved
images of X Her and TX Psc reveal several discrete structures along the
outermost filaments, which could be Kelvin-Helmholtz vortices. Finally, TX Psc
is surrounded by an almost circular ring (the signature of the termination
shock?) that contrasts with the outer, more structured filaments. A similar
inner circular structure seems to be present in X Her as well, albeit less
clearly.Comment: 11 pages, Astronomy & Astrophysics, in pres
The detached dust shells of AQ And, U Ant, and TT Cyg
Detached circumstellar dust shells are detected around three carbon variables
using Herschel-PACS. Two of them are already known on the basis of their
thermal CO emission and two are visible as extensions in IRAS imaging data. By
model fits to the new data sets, physical sizes, expansion timescales, dust
temperatures, and more are deduced. A comparison with existing molecular CO
material shows a high degree of correlation for TT Cyg and U Ant but a few
distinct differences with other observables are also found.Comment: Letter accepted for publication on the A&A Herschel Special Issu
Abell 41: shaping of a planetary nebula by a binary central star?
We present the first detailed spatio-kinematical analysis and modelling of
the planetary nebula Abell 41, which is known to contain the well-studied
close-binary system MT Ser. This object represents an important test case in
the study of the evolution of planetary nebulae with binary central stars as
current evolutionary theories predict that the binary plane should be aligned
perpendicular to the symmetry axis of the nebula.
Deep narrowband imaging in the light of [NII], [OIII] and [SII], obtained
using ACAM on the William Herschel Telescope, has been used to investigate the
ionisation structure of Abell 41. Longslit observations of the H-alpha and
[NII] emission were obtained using the Manchester Echelle Spectrometer on the
2.1-m San Pedro M\'artir Telescope. These spectra, combined with the narrowband
imagery, were used to develop a spatio-kinematical model of [NII] emission from
Abell 41. The best fitting model reveals Abell 41 to have a waisted, bipolar
structure with an expansion velocity of ~40km\s at the waist. The symmetry axis
of the model nebula is within 5\degr of perpendicular to the orbital plane of
the central binary system. This provides strong evidence that the close-binary
system, MT Ser, has directly affected the shaping of its nebula, Abell 41.
Although the theoretical link between bipolar planetary nebulae and binary
central stars is long established, this nebula is only the second to have this
link, between nebular symmetry axis and binary plane, proved observationally.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRA
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