The Stingray Nebula: watching the rapid evolution of a newly born planetary nebula

Abstract

The formation and early evolution of planetary nebulae represent one of the most poorly understood phases of stellar evolution ( Kwok, 1987; Maddox, 1995). One of the youngest, the Stingray Nebula (He3-1357) ( Henize, 1967; Henize, 1976), shows all the tell-tale signs of a newly born planetary nebula: it has become ionized only within the past few decades ( Parthasarathy et al., 1993); the mass-loss from the central star has ceased within the past few years; and the central star is becoming hotter and fainter as expected from a star on its way to becoming a DA white dwarf ( Parthasarathy et al., 1995). The Stingray Nebula thus provides the ideal laboratory for examining the early structure and evolution of this class of objects. Images of the Stingray Nebula, obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope, show for the first time that its multiple expulsions of matter are focused by an equatorial ring and bubbles of gas located on opposite sides of the ring ( Bobrowsky et al., 1995). The position angle of the outflows has changed, possibly as a result of precessional motion induced by the presence of a companion star. This is consistent with the precessing jet model by Livio & Pringle (1996). Indeed, we have reported the discovery of a companion star in the Stingray Nebula ( Bobrowsky et al., 1998). Finally, we present evidence of the companion star dynamically distorting the gas in this newly-born planetary nebula.