Matsuura, M ![]() |
Abstract
The butterfly-shaped planetary nebula, NGC 6302, shows a unique, dense equatorial dark lane, which is presumably a dusty disc, obscuring an unobserved, very hot central star. We trace the structure of this disc using Hubble Space Telescope Hα and [N II] images, Very Large Telescope L-and M-band images at 0.4-arcsec resolution, including Brα and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) images, and a James Clerk Maxwell Telescope 450-μm image. Extinction maps are derived from these images. Within the disc, the extinction is A<sub>Hα</sub>= 5-7 mag and A<sub>Brα</sub>= 1-2 mag. The 450-μm map shows a north-south elongated central core, tracing the massive dust disc, and extended emission from dust in the bipolar flows. A fit to the spectral energy distribution yields the disc dust mass of 0.03 M<sub>solar</sub>. The innermost region shows an ionized shell. The orientation of the polar axis shows a marked change between shell, disc and inner and outer outflow. The structures are well described by the warped-disc model of Icke (2003). PAH images are presented: PAH emission is found in the shell but avoids the disc. An infrared source is found close to the expected location of the central star....
Item Type: | Article |
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Date Type: | Publication |
Status: | Published |
Schools: | Physics and Astronomy |
Publisher: | Oxford University Press |
ISSN: | 0035-8711 |
Date of Acceptance: | 4 February 2005 |
Last Modified: | 22 May 2024 15:30 |
URI: | https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/168093 |
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