An investigation of planetary nebulae accompanying PG1159 central stars, based on Gaia DR2 measurements

TL;DR

This study uses Gaia DR2 data to analyze the physical and kinematical properties of planetary nebulae with PG1159 central stars, revealing their origins, motions, and evolutionary stages within the Galaxy.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the kinematics, progenitor masses, and evolutionary ages of PG1159-related planetary nebulae using Gaia measurements.

Findings

Most nebulae originate from progenitors of 0.9-1.75 M_sun.

Nebulae are part of the Galactic thick disk with average velocities of 61.7 km/s.

PG1159 stars have an average mass of 0.58 M_sun and age of 25,500 years.

Abstract

This article discusses the physical and kinematical characteristics of planetary nebulae accompanying PG1159 central stars. The study is based on the parallax and proper motion measurements recently offered by Gaia space mission. Two approaches were used to investigate the kinematical properties of the sample. The results revealed that most of the studied nebulae arise from progenitor stars of mass range; $0.9-1.75$\,M$_{\odot}$. Furthermore, they tend to live within the Galactic thick-disk and moving with an average peculiar velocity of $61.7\pm19.2$\,km\,s$^{-1}$ at a mean vertical height of $469\pm79$ pc. The locations of the PG1159 stars on the H-R diagram indicate that they have an average final stellar mass and evolutionary age of $0.58\pm0.08$\,M$_{\odot}$ and $25.5\pm5.3 \rm{x}10^3$ yr, respectively. We found a good agreement between the mean evolutionary age of the PG1159 stars and the mean dynamical age of their companion planetary nebulae ($28.0\pm6.4 \rm{x}10^3$ yr).