A swarm of dusty objects in orbit around the central star of planetary nebula.
Authors:
J. Budaj, K. Bernhard, D. Jones, J. Munday
Image & caption:
Please click on image thumbnail to get more info:
Image caption::
Planetary nebula WeSb1. It shines mainly in the emission lines of
hydrogen (red color) and oxygen (blue and green). The central star,
which is orbited by dust clouds, is in the middle, shifted slightly to
the top. The image (K. Bernhard) is based on the observations from NOT
and INT telescopes from Canary Islands is taken from
Nature Astronomy, Jan 8, 2025.
Description:
Exoplanets and smaller bodies have been detected orbiting different kind
of stars. However, we do not know of any such objects in planetary
nebulae, the short-lived stage of stellar evolution between
the asymptotic giant branch and white dwarf phases. The planetary
activity (destruction and formation) may be accompanied by dust clouds.
Hence, we searched for dust occultation events among 2000 stars, which
are central stars of planetary nebulae. We show that one central star
(PN WeSb 1) features numerous deep dimming events with typical durations
of a few days to weeks. Based on our follow-up observations, we argue
that the central star is a binary and that these events are most probably
caused by debris from disintegrated small rocky bodies that are
transiting the companion star. The latter star dominates the optical
spectrum enabling us to see the eclipses.
This means that planetary systems are present and undergo violent
evolution during the planetary nebula stage.
SK
SAS
