Detalles de publicación

PP 015080

High resolution imaging of NGC 2346 with GSAOI/GeMS: disentangling the planetary nebula molecular structure to understand its origin and evolution

Arturo Manchado (1), Letizia Stanghellini (2), Eva Villaver (3), Guillermo Garcia-Segura (4), Richard A. Shaw (2), D. A. Garcia-Hernandez (1)
(1) IAC-ULL ; (2) NOAO ; (3) UAM ; (4) IA-UNAM
We present high spatial resolution ($\approx$ 60--90 milliarcseconds) images of the molecular hydrogen emission in the Planetary Nebula (PN) NGC 2346. The data were acquired during the System Verification of the Gemini Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics System + Gemini South Adaptive Optics Imager. At the distance of NGC 2346, 700 pc, the physical resolution corresponds to $\approx$ 56 AU, which is slightly higher than that an [N II] image of NGC 2346 obtained with HST/WFPC2. With this unprecedented resolution we were able to study in detail the structure of the H$_2$ gas within the nebula for the first time. We found it to be composed of knots and filaments, which at lower resolution had appeared to be a uniform torus of material. We explain how the formation of the clumps and filaments in this PN is consistent with a mechanism in which a central hot bubble of nebular gas surrounding the central star has been depressurized, and the thermal pressure of the photoionized region drives the fragmentation of the swept-up shell.

 
Aceptado para publicación en ApJ | Enviado el 2015-07-30 | Proyecto P/308615