Photoevaporating flows from the cometary knots in the Helix nebula (NGC 7293)

Abstract

We explain the Ha emission of the cometary knots in the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) with an analytical model that describes the emission of the head of the globules as a photoevaporated flow produced by the incident ionizing radiation of the central star.We compare these models with the Ha emission obtained from the HST archival images of the Helix Nebula. From a comparison of the Ha emission with the predictions of the analytical model we obtain a rate of ionizing photons from the central star of about 5e45 s^-1, which is consistent with estimates based on the total Hb flux of the nebula. We also model the tails of the cometary knots as a photoevaporated wind from a neutral shadow region produced by the diffuse ionizing photon field of the nebula. A comparison with the HST images allows us to obtain a direct determination of the value of the diffuse ionizing flux. We compare the ratio of diffuse to direct stellar flux as a function of radius inside an HII region with those obtained from the observational data through the analytical tail and head wind model. The agreement of this model with the values determined from the observations of the knots is excellent.