Bibcode
DOI
Bianchi, Luciana; Bohlin, Ralph; Catanzaro, Giovanni; Ford, Holland; Manchado, A.
Bibliographical reference
The Astronomical Journal, Volume 122, Issue 3, pp. 1538-1544.
Advertised on:
9
2001
Citations
24
Refereed citations
21
Description
We derive some element abundances for the central star of the planetary
nebula K648 from analysis of Hubble Space Telescope Faint Object
Spectrograph spectra (1200-3300 Å). Carbon is found to be
approximately 4 times overabundant with respect to solar values, while
oxygen is underabundant and silicon about solar, and He/H=0.6. The
stellar continuum indicates a reddening of E(B-V)=0.08 and is well
approximated by a synthetic model with Teff=37,000 K and
logg=4.0, as found previously by Heber, Dreizler, & Werner. The
scaling of the synthetic model with the measured UV flux indicates R=1.3
Rsolar, and thus log(L/Lsolar)=3.45, M=0.62
Msolar, assuming a distance of D=10.3 kpc. The C IV exhibits
a wind profile, from which a terminal wind velocity of
V∞=1600+/-150 km s-1 is derived and a column
density of Ni(C IV)=6+/-3×1015
cm-2. From ground-based spectra obtained at the William
Hershel 4.2 m telescope we derive the first measurement of the expansion
velocity for the nebula: Vexp([N II])=11.9 km s-1
and Vexp(Hα)=16.7 km s-1. Combined with the
nebular radius measured from HST imaging in our previous paper, the
velocity yields an expansion age of the object
Agekinematic>=4270 yr. This value is slightly higher than
predictions from post-AGB evolutionary models for a ~0.6
Msolar He-burning remnant. The photospheric overabundance of
He and C, as well as the low luminosity of the central star, are
consistent with a post-AGB object that experienced a late thermal pulse
and consequent third dredge-up, and which is now in a luminosity-dip
He-burning phase. The progenitor mass is fairly low. Based on
observations with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the
Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association
of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), Inc., under NASA
contract NAS 5-26555, and on observations made with the William Hershel
Telescope (WHT), operated on the island of La Palma by the Royal
Greenwich Observatory in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de Los
Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias.