SearcharxivSearch

arXiv · astro-ph/0002289

HST/NICMOS Imaging of the Planetary Nebula Hubble 12

Abstract

Images of Hubble 12 were obtained with the HST/NICMOS instrument in the F110W, F164N, and F166N filters of NIC1, and the F160W, F187N, F190N, F212N, F215N filters of NIC2. The images show the structure of the inner ``torus'' and lobes much clearer than previous ground-based images. In particular, the [Fe II] lobes are clearly resolved and shown to be distinct from the molecular hydrogen emission structures. Apparent changes in the inner ionized and neutral bipolar shell implies periodic mass loss or changes in stellar wind shape or direction. The molecular hydrogen in the ``eye'' is radiatively excited and shows a complex morphology that suggests that several mass ejection events are responsible for producing this structure. The position angle of the molecular hydrogen and [Fe II] lobes differ, indicating a possible precession of the ejection axis.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Joseph L. Hora, William B. Latter, Aditya Dayal, John Bieging, Douglas M. Kelly, A. G. G. M. Tielens, Susan R. Trammell. 2000-02-14. HST/NICMOS Imaging of the Planetary Nebula Hubble 12. https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0002289

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

Deformation procedure for scalar fields in cosmology

This work offers an extension of the deformation procedure introduced in field theory to the case of standard cosmology in the presence of real scalar field in flat space-time. The procedure is shown to work for many models, which give rise to several different cosmic scenarios, evolving under the presence of first-order differential equations which solve the corresponding equations of motion very appropriately.

astro-ph

Dark Energy is the Cosmological Quantum Vacuum Energy of Light Particles-The Axion and the Lightest Neutrino

We uncover the general mechanism producing the dark energy(DE). This is only based on well known quantum physics and cosmology. We show that the observed DE originates from the cosmological quantum vacuum of light particles which provides a continuous energy distribution able to reproduce the data. Bosons give positive contributions to the DE while fermions yield negative contributions. As usual in field theory, ultraviolet divergences are subtracted from the physical quantities. The subtractions respect the symmetries of the theory and we normalize the physical quantities to be zero for the Minkowski vacuum. The resulting finite contributions to the energy density and the pressure from the quantum vacuum grow as log a(t) where a(t) is the scale factor, while the particle contributions dilute as 1/a^3(t), as it must be for massive particles. The DE equation of state P = w(z)H turns to be w(z)<-1 with w(z) asymptotically reaching the value -1 from below.A scalar particle can produce the observed DE through its quantum cosmological vacuum provided:(i)its mass is of the order of 10^{-3} eV = 1 meV,(ii) it is very weakly coupled and (iii) it is stable on the time scale of the age of the universe. The axion vacuum thus appears as a natural candidate. The neutrino vacuum (especially the lightest mass eigenstate) can give negative contributions to the DE. We find that w(z=0) is slightly below -1 by an amount ranging from [-1.5 10^{-3}] to [-8 10^{-3}] and we predict the axion mass to be in the range between 4 and 5 meV. We find that the universe will expand in the future faster than the de Sitter universe, as an exponential in the square of the cosmic time. DE arises from the quantum vacua of light particles in FRW cosmological space time in an analogous way to the Casimir effect in Minkowski spacetime with non trivial boundaries.

astro-ph