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URochester:How Stellar Death Can Lead To Twin Celestial Jets
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2014 6:23 pm
by MargaritaMc
University of Rochester:How Stellar Death Can Lead To Twin Celestial Jets
Astronomers know that while large stars can end their lives as violently cataclysmic supernovae, smaller stars end up as planetary nebulae — colorful, glowing clouds of dust and gas. In recent decades these nebulae, once thought to be mostly spherical, have been observed to often emit powerful, bipolar jets of gas and dust. But how do spherical stars evolve to produce highly aspherical planetary nebulae?
In a theoretical paper published this week in the
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society*, a University of Rochester professor and his undergraduate student conclude that only "strongly interacting" binary stars — or a star and a massive planet — can feasibly give rise to these powerful jets.
Read more at:
http://www.rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=8322
*"Using Kinematic Properties of Pre-Planetary Nebulae to Constrain Engine Paradigms", Eric G. Blackman and Scott Luchini, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Oxford University Press
The paper is available (free, it seems) from
http://mnrasl.oxfordjournals.org/conten ... asl.slu001.
A preprint of the paper is available from
http://arxiv.org/abs/1312.5372
Re: URochester:How Stellar Death Can Lead To Twin Celestial
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2014 8:17 pm
by geckzilla
It's nice to see a new paper using "pre-planetary" instead of "protoplanetary". Protoplanetary sounds way too similar to protoplaneatary disk. Now, if we can just get the "planetary" out of the name... shucks, my pet peeve is showing. Anyway, pre-planetary nebulas are my favorite things to look at. It's just a shame so few are big enough to view except with Hubble. No matter how many I look at they don't get old.
Re: URochester:How Stellar Death Can Lead To Twin Celestial
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2014 9:08 pm
by MargaritaMc
Yes, they
are very beautiful objects/processes, and ones that I hadn't clearly differentiated from planetary nebulae. I looked up the list on
Wikipedia (still called protoplanetary nebulae there, unfortunately...) and discovered that the Red Rectangle Nebula is a pre-planetary nebula, not (as I'd assumed) a planetary nebula.*
I live and learn!
M
*I was explaining to a friend the other day that a protoplanetary disc (around a newly formed star) had absolutely NO connection with a planetary nebula. He looked bewildered. Thank goodness I didn't know enough to try to introduce protoplanetary nebulae.
Re: URochester:How Stellar Death Can Lead To Twin Celestial
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2014 9:12 pm
by geckzilla
That wiki list needs a lot of work. Try this one:
http://www.astro.washington.edu/users/balick/pPNe/
Re: URochester:How Stellar Death Can Lead To Twin Celestial
Posted: Wed Feb 12, 2014 9:33 pm
by MargaritaMc
Wow! It's like going through a jewel box. Thanks very much for the link.
M