Recent observations of the Egg Nebula (AFGL 2688), obtained at
ever-increasing spatial and spectral resolution, have revealed a perplexing
array of phenomena. Many of these phenomena present challenges to our
understanding of this object as an emerging, bipolar planetary nebula. Here, we
consider two particularly intriguing aspects of the Egg: the peculiar structure
and kinematics of its equatorial regions, and the nature of an apparent widely
separated companion to the central star. In the first case, we use recently
acquired Hubble Space Telescope images to demonstrate that the H2 emission
distributed east and west of the central star is spatially coincident with a
dusty, equatorial disk or torus. The H2 is thus constrained to lie near the
equatorial plane, casting doubt on pure radial outflow models for the
equatorial kinematics. In the second case, we show that the apparent companion
(``Peak A'') may be an accreting white dwarf that has undergone one or more
thermonuclear bursts.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure; to appear in "Asymmetrical Planetary Nebulae III"
editors M. Meixner, J. Kastner, N. Soker, & B. Balick (ASP Conf. Series