OH Maser Emission from Young Planetary Nebulae

Abstract

OH/IR stars are now generally accepted to be progenitors of planetary nebulae. We have carried out a project to try to find objects in the transition phase between OH/IR stars and PN. Transition objects should be characterized by having both continuum radio emission and a 1612 MHz OH maser line. The continuuum emission would indicate that the central star has become hot enough to ionize part of the envelope, while the OH maser indicates that a large part of the envelope is still neutral. Only one such object was known, namely Vy 2-2.