The spatio-kinematical structure and distance of the pre-planetary nebula IRAS 19134+2131

Using the VLBA, we have observed H2O maser emission in the pre-planetary nebula IRAS 19134+2131(I19134), in which the H2O maser spectrum has two groups of emission features separated in radial velocity by ~100 km/s. We also obtained optical images of I19134 with the HST to locate the bipolar reflection nebula in this source for the first time. The spatio-kinematical structure of the H2O masers indicates the existence of a fast, collimated (precessing) flow having a projected extent of ~140 mas and an expansion rate of ~1.9 mas/yr on the sky plane, which gives a dynamical age of only ~40 yr. The two detected optical lobes are also separated by ~150 mas in almost the same direction as that of the collimated flow. The good agreement between the extent and orientation of the H2O maser outflow and optical lobes suggests that the lobes have been recently formed along the collimated fast flow. The positions of all of the detected maser features have been measured with respect to the reference source J1925+2106 over one year. Therefore we analyzed maser feature motions that consist of the combination of an annual parallax, a secular motion following Galactic rotation, and the intrinsic motions within the flow. We obtain an annual-parallax distance to I19134 of D~8 kpc kpc and estimate its location in the Galaxy to be (R, theta, z)=(7.4 kpc, 62 deg, 0.65 kpc). From the mean motion of the blue-shifted and red-shifted clusters of maser features, we estimate the 3-D secular motion of I19134 to be (V_{R}, V_{theta}, V_{z})=(3, 125, 8) [km/s]. From the height from the Galactic plane, z, and the velocity component perpendicular to the Galactic plane, V_{z}, we estimate a rough upper limit of ~9 M_{sun} to the stellar mass of I19134's progenitor.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figures, to appear in the Astrophysical Journal, October 20 issu

A Study of H2 Emission in Three Bipolar Proto-Planetary Nebulae: IRAS 16594-4656, Hen 3-401, and Rob 22

We have carried out a spatial-kinematical study of three proto-planetary nebulae, IRAS 16594-4656, Hen 3-401, and Rob 22. High-resolution H2 images were obtained with NICMOS on the HST and high-resolution spectra were obtained with the Phoenix spectrograph on Gemini-South. IRAS 16594-4656 shows a "peanut-shaped" bipolar structure with H2 emission from the walls and from two pairs of more distant, point-symmetric faint blobs. The velocity structure shows the polar axis to be in the plane of the sky, contrary to the impression given by the more complex visual image and the visibility of the central star, with an ellipsoidal velocity structure. Hen 3-401 shows the H2 emission coming from the walls of the very elongated, open-ended lobes seen in visible light, along with a possible small disk around the star. The bipolar lobes appear to be tilted 10-15 deg with respect to the plane of the sky and their kinematics display a Hubble-like flow. In Rob 22, the H2 appears in the form of an "S" shape, approximately tracing out the similar pattern seen in the visible. H2 is especially seen at the ends of the lobes and at two opposite regions close to the unseen central star. The axis of the lobes is nearly in the plane of the sky. Expansion ages of the lobes are calculated to be approximately 1600 yr (IRAS 16594-4656), 1100 yr (Hen 3-401), and 640 yr (Rob 22), based upon approximate distances

Pinpointing the Position of the Post-AGB Star at the Core of RAFGL 2688 using Polarimetric Imaging with NICMOS

We have used infrared polarimetric imaging with NICMOS to determine precisely the position of the star that illuminates (and presumably generated) the bipolar, pre-planetary reflection nebula RAFGL 2688 (the Egg Nebula). The polarimetric data pinpoint the illuminating star, which is not detected directly at wavelengths less than or equal to 2 microns, at a position well within the dark lane that bisects the nebula, 0.55" (about 550 AU) southwest of the infrared peak which was previously detected at the southern tip of the northern polar lobe. The inferred position of the central star corresponds to the geometric center of the tips of the four principle lobes of near-infrared H2 emission; identifying the central star at this position also reveals the strong point symmetric structure of the nebula, as seen both in the intensity and polarization structure of the polar lobes. The polarimetric and imaging data indicate that the infrared peak directly detected in the NICMOS images is a self-luminous source and, therefore, is most likely a distant binary companion to the illuminating star. Although present theory predicts that bipolar structure in pre-planetary and planetary nebulae is a consequence of binary star evolution, the separation between the components of the RAFGL 2688 binary system, as deduced from these observations, is much too large for the presence of the infrared companion to have influenced the structure of the RAFGL 2688 nebula.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, to appear in The Astrophysical Journa