Tomasz Nowakowski is a writer for the website Phys.org.
The PS1 survey has a rP1-band image of Abell 48. Chambers et al., 2015; Flewelling et al., 2020.
Astronomers have studied a planetary nebula called Abell 48. The results of the research could improve our knowledge of this object. The study was published in December.
The shells of gas and dust ejected from a star during the process of its evolution into a red giant or white dwarf are called planetary nebulae. They are important for studying the chemical evolution of stars.
Abell 48 is a PN around a rare Wolf-Rayet star. It shows a ring-shaped morphology with a mean diameter of 40''. Many of the parameters of this PN are still uncertain.
A team of Astronomers led by Ash Danehkar of the University of Michigan decided to shed more light on the properties of Abell 48 by analyzing the available observational data from the 2.3-m telescope operated by the Australian National University. They were able to create a 3D model of this PN.
We used the integral field observations of the H 6343 and [N II] 6584 line emissions to conduct a comprehensive spatio-kinematic analysis of the PN. The researchers wrote in the paper that a three-dimensional model was developed with the tool SHAPE to replicate the observed velocities.
Abell 48 has a elliptic toroidal shell with an outer radius of 23 arcsseconds and a thickness of 15 arcsseconds. This shell is associated with an emission-line expansion of 35 km/s.
The study found that there were narrow exterior low-ionization structures surrounding the shell of Abell 48. The structures are thought to have formed as a result of shock collision with the ISM.
The central star of Abell 48 is a rare Wolf-Rayet star. The authors of the paper think that the star's stellar layer was lost to a companion object.
"We know that some PNe with similar elliptical ring-shaped morphology evolved from common envelopes with binarity, such as Abell 63, Abell 41, and Sp 1."
They want to further monitor the central star of Abell 48 in order to verify the hypothesis. The formation of the star and the nebular around it could be explained by these observations.
Abell 48 is a planetary nebula around a Wolf-Rayet star.
The Science X Network will be launched in 2022.
The Spatio-kinematic properties of planetary Abell 48 were explored by recent research.
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