582 research outputs found
Spectroscopy of the post-AGB star HD 101584(IRAS 11385-5517)
From an analysis of the spectrum (4000\AA to 8800\AA) of HD~101584 it is
found that most of the neutral and single ionized metallic lines are in
emission. The forbidden emission lines of [OI] 6300\AA and 6363\AA and [CI]
8727\AA are detected, which indicate the presence of a very low excitation
nebula. The H, FeII 6383\AA, NaI D, D lines and the CaII IR
triplet lines show P-Cygni profiles indicating a mass outflow. The H
line shows many velocity components in the profile. The FeII 6383\AA also has
almost the same line profile as the H line indicating that they are
formed in the same region. From the spectrum synthesis analysis we find the
atmospheric parameters to be T=8500K, log g=1.5,
V=13km~s and [Fe/H]=0.0. From an analysis of the absorption
lines the photospheric abundances of some of the elements are derived. Carbon
and nitrogen are found to be overabundant. From the analysis of Fe emission
lines we derived T=6100K200 for the emission line region.Comment: To appear in A&A, 15 pages, 11 figure
The redshift and broad band spectral energy distribution of NRAO 150
Context. NRAO 150 is one of the brightest radio and mm AGN sources on the
northern sky. It has been revealed as an interesting source where to study
extreme relativistic jet phenomena. However, its cosmological distance has not
been reported so far, because of its optical faintness produced by strong
Galactic extinction.
Aims. Aiming at measuring the redshift of NRAO 150, and hence to start making
possible quantitative studies from the source.
Methods. We have conducted spectroscopic and photometric observations of the
source in the near-IR, as well as in the optical.
Results. All such observations have been successful in detecting the source.
The near-IR spectroscopic observations reveal strong H and H
emission lines from which the cosmological redshift of NRAO 150
() has been determined for the first time. We classify the
source as a flat-spectrum radio-loud quasar, for which we estimate a large
super-massive black-hole mass . After
extinction correction, the new near-IR and optical data have revealed a
high-luminosity continuum-emission excess in the optical (peaking at
\,\AA, rest frame) that we attribute to thermal emission from the
accretion disk for which we estimate a high accretion rate, \,% of the
Eddington limit.
Conclusions. Comparison of these source properties, and its broad-band
spectral-energy distribution, with those of Fermi blazars allow us to predict
that NRAO 150 is among the most powerful blazars, and hence a high luminosity
-although not detected yet- -ray emitter.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure
Why are massive O-rich AGB stars in our Galaxy not S-stars?
We present the main results derived from a chemical analysis carried out on a
large sample of galactic O-rich AGB stars using high resolution optical
spectroscopy (R~40,000-50,000) with the intention of studying their lithium
abundances and/or possible s-process element enrichment. Our chemical analysis
shows that some stars are lithium overabundant while others are not. The
observed lithium overabundances are interpreted as a clear signature of the
activation of the so-called ``Hot Bottom Burning'' (HBB) process in massive
galactic O-rich AGB stars, as predicted by the models. However, these stars do
not show the zirconium enhancement (taken as a representative for the s-process
element enrichment) associated to the third dredge-up phase following thermal
pulses. Our results suggest that the more massive O-rich AGB stars in our
Galaxy behave differently from those in the Magellanic Clouds, which are both
Li- and s-process-rich (S-type stars). Reasons for this unexpected result are
discussed. We conclude that metallicity is probably the main responsible for
the differences observed and suggest that it may play a more important role
than generally assumed in the chemical evolution of AGB stars.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the conference
"Planetary Nebulae as astronomical tools" held in Gdansk, Poland, jun 28/jul
02, 200
Infrared Study of Fullerene Planetary Nebulae
We present a study of 16 PNe where fullerenes have been detected in their
Spitzer spectra. This large sample of objects offers an unique opportunity to
test conditions of fullerene formation and survival under different metallicity
environments as we are analyzing five sources in our own Galaxy, four in the
LMC, and seven in the SMC. Among the 16 PNe under study, we present the first
detection of C60 (possibly also C70) fullerenes in the PN M 1-60 as well as of
the unusual 6.6, 9.8, and 20 um features (possible planar C24) in the PN K
3-54. Although selection effects in the original samples of PNe observed with
Spitzer may play a potentially significant role in the statistics, we find that
the detection rate of fullerenes in C-rich PNe increases with decreasing
metallicity (5% in the Galaxy, 20% in the LMC, and 44% in the SMC). CLOUDY
photoionization modeling matches the observed IR fluxes with central stars that
display a rather narrow range in effective temperature (30,000-45,000 K),
suggesting a common evolutionary status of the objects and similar fullerene
formation conditions. The observed C60 intensity ratios in the Galactic sources
confirm our previous finding in the MCs that the fullerene emission is not
excited by the UV radiation from the central star. CLOUDY models also show that
line- and wind-blanketed model atmospheres can explain many of the observed
[NeIII]/[NeII] ratios by photoionization suggesting that possibly the UV
radiation from the central star, and not shocks, are triggering the
decomposition of the circumstellar dust grains. With the data at hand, we
suggest that the most likely explanation for the formation of fullerenes and
graphene precursors in PNe is that these molecular species are built from the
photo-chemical processing of a carbonaceous compound with a mixture of aromatic
and aliphatic structures similar to that of HAC dust.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ (43 pages, 11 figures, and 4 tables).
Small changes to fit the proof-corrected article to be published in Ap
The high-velocity outflow in the proto-planetary nebula Hen 3-1475
The proto-planetary nebula Hen 3-1475 shows a remarkable highly collimated
optical jet with an S-shaped string of three pairs of knots and extremely high
velocities. We present here a detailed analysis of the overall morphology,
kinematic structure and the excitation conditions of these knots based on deep
ground-based high dispersion spectroscopy complemented with high spatial
resolution spectroscopy obtained with STIS onboard HST, and WFPC2 [N II]
images. The spectra obtained show double-peaked, extremely wide emission line
profiles, and a decrease of the radial velocities with distance to the source
in a step-like fashion. We find that the emission line ratios observed in the
intermediate knots are consistent with a spectrum arising from the
recombination region of a shock wave with shock velocities ranging from 100 to
150 km/s. We propose that the ejection velocity is varying as a function of
time with a quasi-periodic variability (with timescale of the order of 100
years) and the direction of ejection is also varying with a precession period
of the order of 1500 years.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in A&
Physical Structure of Planetary Nebulae. I. The Owl Nebula
The Owl Nebula is a triple-shell planetary nebula with the outermost shell
being a faint bow-shaped halo. We have obtained deep narrow-band images and
high-dispersion echelle spectra in the H-alpha, [O III], and [N II] emission
lines to determine the physical structure of each shell in the nebula. These
spatio-kinematic data allow us to rule out hydrodynamic models that can
reproduce only the nebular morphology. Our analysis shows that the inner shell
of the main nebula is slightly elongated with a bipolar cavity along its major
axis, the outer nebula is a filled envelope co-expanding with the inner shell
at 40 km/s, and the halo has been braked by the interstellar medium as the Owl
Nebula moves through it. To explain the morphology and kinematics of the Owl
Nebula, we suggest the following scenario for its formation and evolution. The
early mass loss at the TP-AGB phase forms the halo, and the superwind at the
end of the AGB phase forms the main nebula. The subsequent fast stellar wind
compressed the superwind to form the inner shell and excavated an elongated
cavity at the center, but has ceased in the past. At the current old age, the
inner shell is backfilling the central cavity.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, to appear in the Astronomical Journa
A spectroscopic atlas of post-AGB stars and planetary nebulae selected from the IRAS Point Source Catalogue
Aims: We study the optical spectral properties of a sample of stars showing
far infrared colours similar to those of well-known planetary nebulae. The
large majority of them were unidentified sources or poorly known in the
literature at the time when this spectroscopic survey started, some 15 years
ago.
Methods: We present low-resolution optical spectroscopy, finding charts and
improved astrometric coordinates of a sample of 253 IRAS sources.
Results: We have identified 103 sources as post-AGB stars, 21 as ``transition
sources'', and 36 as planetary nebulae, some of them strongly reddened. Among
the rest of sources in the sample, we were also able to identify 38 young
stellar objects, 5 peculiar stars, and 2 Seyfert galaxies. Up to 49 sources in
our spectroscopic sample do not show any optical counterpart, and most of them
are suggested to be heavily obscured post-AGB stars, rapidly evolving on their
way to becoming planetary nebulae.
Conclusions: An analysis of the galactic distribution of the sources
identified as evolved stars in the sample is presented together with a study of
the distribution of these stars in the IRAS two-colour diagram. Finally, the
spectral type distribution and other properties of the sources identified as
post-AGB in this spectroscopic survey are discussed in the framework of stellar
evolution.Comment: 69 pages, 413 figures. Accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysic
Constraint on the time variation of the fine-structure constant with the SDSS-III/BOSS DR12 quasar sample
From the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 12, which covers the
full Baryonic Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) footprint, we investigate
the possible variation of the fine-structure constant over cosmological
time-scales. We analyse the largest quasar sample considered so far in the
literature, which contains 13175 spectra (10363 from SDSS-III/BOSS DR12 + 2812
from SDSS-II DR7) with redshift 1. We apply the emission-line method on
the [O III] doublet (4960, 5008 A) and obtain for the relative variation of the fine-structure
constant. We also investigate the possible sources of systematics:
misidentification of the lines, sky OH lines, H and broad line
contamination, Gaussian and Voigt fitting profiles, optimal wavelength range
for the Gaussian fits, chosen polynomial order for the continuum spectrum,
signal-to-noise ratio and good quality of the fits. The uncertainty of the
measurement is dominated by the sky subtraction. The results presented in this
work, being systematics limited, have sufficient statistics to constrain
robustly the variation of the fine-structure constant in redshift bins ( 0.06) over the last 7.9 Gyr. In addition, we study the [Ne III]
doublet (3870, 3969 A) present in 462 quasar spectra and discuss the systematic
effects on using these emission lines to constrain the fine-structure constant
variation. Better constraints on (10) using
the emission-line method would be possible with high-resolution spectroscopy
and large galaxy/qso surveys.Comment: 16 pages, 16 figures. Version published in MNRAS. Analysis enlarged,
public catalogue now availabl
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