Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
Author biography
1 Introduction
1.1 Planetary nebulae
1.2 Discovery and history
1.2.1 Initial discovery
1.2.2 Naming
1.2.3 The road to understanding
1.2.4 Origins and fate revealed
1.2.5 Methods of discovery
1.3 Components of planetary nebulae
1.3.1 Nebular envelope
1.3.2 Central star
References
2 Formation of planetary nebulae
2.1 Planetary nebulae as a stage in stellar evolution
2.1.1 HertzsprungβRussell diagram
2.1.2 Stellar evolutionβmain sequence to the AGB
2.1.3 Evolution to the asymptotic giant branch
2.1.4 The asymptotic giant branch
2.1.5 Mass loss
2.2 Proto-planetary nebulae
2.2.1 Morphology
2.3 Progenitor masses
2.3.1 Calculation of white dwarf mass
2.3.2 Calculation of progenitor mass
2.3.3 Fate outside of the bounds
2.4 Post-planetary nebula
2.4.1 White dwarf physical characteristics
2.4.2 White dwarf observational and chemical characteristics
2.5 Interacting stellar winds
2.5.1 The model
2.5.2 Limitations of the model
References
3 Observational data of planetary nebulae
3.1 Chemical abundance
3.1.1 Observed abundance
3.1.2 Galactic chemical gradient
3.1.3 Galactic chemical enrichment
3.2 Distance determination
3.2.1 Difficulties in determining distance
3.2.2 Techniques for determining distance
References
4 Planetary nebula morphology
4.1 Classifying planetary nebulae
4.1.1 Chemical classification
4.1.2 Morphological classification
4.2 Morphology, classification and planetary nebulae evolution
4.2.1 Morphology and planetary nebulae abundance
4.2.2 Morphology and progenitor star mass
4.3 Explaining morphology
4.3.1 Round morphology
4.3.2 Elliptical morphology
4.3.3 Bipolar morphology
4.3.4 Point symmetric morphology
4.4 Concluding remarks
References
Glossary
Symbols
