Bibcode
DOI
Manchado, A.; Stanghellini, Letizia; Guerrero, Martin A.
Bibliographical reference
Astrophysical Journal Letters v.466, p.L95
Advertised on:
8
1996
Citations
99
Refereed citations
78
Description
In the context of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC)
morphological survey of Galactic planetary nebulae (PNs), a new
morphological class has been found, and we define their members as
quadrupolar PNs. We have found five quadrupolar objects whose lobes are,
in pairs, symmetric with respect to two different axes. Among these PNs,
three (M2-46, K3-24, and M1-75) have well-defined pairs of lobes;
another two (M3-28 and M4-14) are irregular and very possibly
quadrupolar. For M2-46, we have measured the extension and the angle
between the lobes, and the expansion velocities of the lobes by means of
spectroscopic analysis. We propose that these nebulae have been formed
by precession of the rotation axis of the central stars, possibly in the
presence of a binary companion, associated with multiple shell ejection
at the asymptotic giant branch. A simple binary mechanism not associated
with precession cannot produce such a morphology.