The messy death of a multiple star system and the resulting planetary nebula as observed by JWST
Journal article, 2022

Planetary nebulae—the ejected envelopes of red giant stars—provide us with a history of the last, mass-losing phases of 90% of stars initially more massive than the Sun. Here we analyse images of the planetary nebula NGC 3132 from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Early Release Observations. A structured, extended hydrogen halo surrounding an ionized central bubble is imprinted with spiral structures, probably shaped by a low-mass companion orbiting the central star at about 40–60 au. The images also reveal a mid-infrared excess at the central star, interpreted as a dusty disk, which is indicative of an interaction with another closer companion. Including the previously known A-type visual companion, the progenitor of the NGC 3132 planetary nebula must have been at least a stellar quartet. The JWST images allow us to generate a model of the illumination, ionization and hydrodynamics of the molecular halo, demonstrating the power of JWST to investigate complex stellar outflows. Furthermore, new measurements of the A-type visual companion allow us to derive the value for the mass of the progenitor of a central star with excellent precision: 2.86 ± 0.06 M⊙. These results serve as pathfinders for future JWST observations of planetary nebulae, providing unique insight into fundamental astrophysical processes including colliding winds and binary star interactions, with implications for supernovae and gravitational-wave systems.

Author

O. De Marco

Macquarie University

Muhammad Akashi

Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

S. Akras

National Observatory of Athens

J. Alcolea

Spanish National Observatory (OAN)

I. Aleman

Federal University of Itajubá

P. Amram

Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille

B. Balick

University of Washington

Elvire De Beck

Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics

E. G. Blackman

University of Rochester

Henri M. J. Boffin

European Southern Observatory (ESO)

Panos Boumis

National Observatory of Athens

Jesse Bublitz

Green Bank Observatory

Beatrice Bucciarelli

Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)

V. Bujarrabal

Spanish National Observatory (OAN)

Jan Cami

SETI Institute

Western University

Nicholas Chornay

University of Cambridge

Y. H. Chu

Academia Sinica

Romano L.M. Corradi

Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias

GRANTECAN

Adam Frank

University of Rochester

D. A. García-Hernández

University of La Laguna

Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias

Jorge García-Rojas

University of La Laguna

Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias

G. García-Segura

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Veronica Gómez-Llanos

Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias

University of La Laguna

Denise R. Gonçalves

Federal University of Rio de Janeiro

M. A. Guerrero

Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA)

David Jones

Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias

University of La Laguna

Amanda I. Karakas

ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D)

Monash University

J. H. Kastner

Rochester Institute of Technology

Sun Kwok

University of British Columbia (UBC)

F. Lykou

Hungarian Academy of Sciences

Research Centre For Astronomy and Earth Sciences

Arturo Manchado

Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas

Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias

University of La Laguna

M. Matsuura

Cardiff University

I. McDonald

Open University

University of Manchester

Brent Miszalski

Macquarie University

S. Mohamed

National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Sciences (NITheCS)

University of Miami

South African Astronomical Observatory

University of Cape Town

Ana Monreal-Ibero

Leiden University

Hektor Monteiro

Federal University of Itajubá

R. Montez

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Paula Moraga Baez

Rochester Institute of Technology

Christophe Morisset

University of La Laguna

J. Nordhaus

Rochester Institute of Technology

National Technical Institute for the Deaf

Claudia Mendes de Oliveira

University of Sao Paulo (USP)

Zara Osborn

ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D)

Monash University

M. Otsuka

Kyoto University

Quentin A. Parker

The Laboratory for Space Research

The University of Hong Kong

Els Peeters

Western University

SETI Institute

Bruno C. Quint

Rubin Observatory Project Office

G. Quintana-Lacaci

CSIC - Instituto de Fisica Fundamental (IFF)

Matt Redman

National University of Ireland

Ashley J. Ruiter

University of New South Wales at Australian Defence Force Academy

L. Sabin

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

R. Sahai

California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

Carmen Sánchez Contreras

Centro de Astrobiologia (CAB)

M. Santander-García

Spanish National Observatory (OAN)

Ivo Seitenzahl

University of New South Wales at Australian Defence Force Academy

Noam Soker

Technion – Israel Institute of Technology

Angela K. Speck

The University of Texas at San Antonio

Letizia Stanghellini

NSF's National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab)

Wolfgang Steffen

AstroPhysical MediaStudio

J. A. Toala

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

T. Ueta

University of Denver

G. Van de Steene

Royal Observatory of Belgium

H. van Winckel

KU Leuven

P. Ventura

Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma

E. Villaver

Centro de Astrobiologia (CAB)

Wouter Vlemmings

Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics

Jeremy R. Walsh

European Southern Observatory (ESO)

R. Wesson

Cardiff University

A. Zijlstra

University of Manchester

Nature Astronomy

23973366 (eISSN)

Vol. 6 12 1421-1432

Subject Categories

Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology

Computer Vision and Robotics (Autonomous Systems)

Medical Image Processing

DOI

10.1038/s41550-022-01845-2

More information

Latest update

12/19/2022