The role of TESS in the search for binary central stars of planetary nebulae
Abstract
It is now clear that binarity plays a crucial role in many aspects of planetary nebulae (PNe), particularly the striking morphologies that they show. To date, there are about 60 binary central stars of PN (bCSPN) known, among the more than 3000 PN in our Galaxy. However, both theory and observation indicates that this represents only the tip of the iceberg. Search for new bCSPNe is essential to enhance the statistical validation of the key role of binarity in the formation and shaping of PNe. In this work, we used data from the TESS satellite to search for variability in the eight CSPNe that belong to the two-minute cadence preselected targets in Cycle 1. All the CSPNe but one show clear signs of periodic variability in TESS that can be attributed to different effects, some of them requiring the presence of a companion star. The case of the well-known Helix Nebula is of particular interest, since we find that the variability constrains the possible companion to be very low-mass main-sequence star or sub-stellar object.
- Publication:
-
XIV.0 Scientific Meeting (virtual) of the Spanish Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- July 2020
- Bibcode:
- 2020sea..confE.112A