IR ring nebulae in the Milky Way and M33 galaxies

Studying the formation of massive stars in our Galaxy and in other galaxies is one of the possibilities to connect the information obtained for the regions of star formation in general. This study presents statistical and theoretical data on infrared ring nebulae (IRRN) in our Galaxy and the galaxy M33, which is located not far from us and in the plane of sky, which is convenient for selecting individual objects. In this paper, comparisons of fluxes for 258 star-forming complexes in M33, extragalactic of star formation complexes, and for IRRN in our Galaxy are shown. A theoretical calculation of the distribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons using DustEM has been carried out.

Helium abundances and its radial gradient from the spectra of H ii regions and ring nebulae of the Milky Way

ABSTRACT We determine the radial abundance gradient of helium in the disc of the Galaxy from published spectra of 19 H ii regions and ring nebulae surrounding massive O-type stars. We revise the Galactocentric distances of the objects considering Gaia DR2 parallaxes (Gaia Collaboration 2018) and determine the physical conditions and the ionic abundance of He+ in a homogeneous way, using between 3 and 10 He i recombination lines in each object. We estimate the total He abundance of the nebulae and its radial abundance gradient using four different ionization correction factor (ICF; He) schemes. The slope of the gradient is always negative and weakly dependent on the ICF(He) scheme, especially when only the objects with log(η) < 0.9 are considered. The slope values go from −0.0078 to −0.0044 dex kpc−1, consistent with the predictions of chemical evolution models of the Milky Way and chemodynamical simulations of disc galaxies. Finally, we estimate the abundance deviations of He, O, and N in a sample of ring nebulae around Galactic Wolf–Rayet stars, finding a quite similar He overabundance of about +0.24 ± 0.11 dex in three stellar ejecta ring nebulae.

Small-scale structures in planetary nebulae

Two planetary nebulae (PNe) were studied in order to investigate small scale molecular structures in planetary nebulae, the survival of which affects the structure and composition of the interstellar medium (ISM) from which the next generation of stars is born. Molecular hydrogen (H[subscript 2]) was used a tracer for molecular emission and its excitation properties used as a probe of shock physics. Previous studies of several planetary nebulae have indicated a relationship between molecular hydrogen and cometary knots as a shielding mechanism allowing for continued survival and formation of the molecule. Our first PN studied, the Dumbbell nebula (NGC 6853), revealed not only H[subscript 2] bearing knots (similar to the Helix and Ring nebulae), but also regions of H[subscript 2] emission which were poorly sculpted or unstructured diffuse regions, unlike previously studied nebulae. The second PN, NGC 2392 has well documented cometary knots, however we find no detection of molecular hydrogen emission from the knots or otherwise making it an outlier among cometary knot bearing planetary nebulae. Both nebula studied in this research challenge current models of H[subscript 2] bearing small scale structures in PNe and indicate a need to expand our rather small sample of such objects so that we may begin to understand the processes behind H[subscript 2] formation, excitation, and its role in cometary knots of the PN as a whole.

Stellar formation in HI interstellar bubbles around massive stars

Stellar winds from O and WR stars transfer large amounts of mechanical energy and momentum into the interstellar medium. They sweep up and compress the interstellar material, creating interstellar bubbles. These structures are detected as optical ring nebulae, as thermal radio continuum sources, as infrared shells, as neutral gas voids and expanding shells in the HI line emission distribution, and as molecular shells.