SHAPING THE RED RECTANGLE PROTO-PLANETARY NEBULA BY A PRECESSING JET

Journal Article · Fri Jun 10 04:00:00 EDT 2011 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/734/1/57· OSTI ID:21576638

Velazquez, Pablo F; Raga, Alejandro C; Haro-Corzo, Sinhue; Esquivel, Alejandro ^[1]; Steffen, Wolfgang ^[2]; Canto, Jorge ^[3]; Riera, Angels ^[4]

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1. Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Apdo. Postal 70-543, CP: 04510, D. F. (Mexico)
2. Instituto de AstronomIa, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Ensenada, Baja California (Mexico)
3. Instituto de AstronomIa, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Apdo. Postal 70-242, CP: 04510, D. F. (Mexico)
4. Departament de Fisica i Enginyeria Nuclear, EUETIB, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Compte d'Urgell 187, 08036 Barcelona (Spain)

We carried out three-dimensional hydrodynamical simulations (employing the YGUAZU-A code) of a precessing jet launched by a star in a binary system. Synthetic scattered light intensity maps were generated in order to compare them with images of the Red Rectangle proto-planetary nebula (PPN), which contains the binary system HD 44179. Our results show that the angular size, the global biconical or hourglass morphology, and the existence of its 'ladder rungs' features can be explained in terms of a jet precessing with a period 20 times the orbital period of the HD 44179 system, a semi-angle of 30 deg. (of the precession cone), and a velocity of 300 km s{sup -1}. In addition, we calculated the flux predicted from the models, which is of the same order of magnitude as the observed flux in the outer regions of the nebula. Finally, the orbital motion was found to have a negligible influence on the large-scale morphology of the PPN.

• OSTI ID: 21576638
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 734; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
FLUID MECHANICS
HYDRODYNAMICS
IMAGES
MAPS
MECHANICS
NEBULAE
PLANETARY NEBULAE
RADIATIONS
SIMULATION
STARS
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
VISIBLE RADIATION