Planetary Nebulae: Sources of Enlightenment

TL;DR

This review discusses planetary nebulae as key stages in stellar evolution, their role in enriching the interstellar medium, and their use as astrophysical laboratories, highlighting recent observations and future prospects.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of planetary nebulae's properties, emphasizing element abundances, dust, molecules, and morphological evolution, integrating recent observational and theoretical insights.

Findings

Element abundance determinations align with theoretical models.

Dust and molecules are significant components of planetary nebulae.

Future observations will enhance understanding of nebular evolution.

Abstract

In this review/tutorial we explore planetary nebulae as a stage in the evolution of low-to-intermediate-mass stars, as major contributors to the mass and chemical enrichment of the interstellar medium, and as astrophysical laboratories. We discuss many observed properties of planetary nebulae, placing particular emphasis on element abundance determinations and comparisons with theoretical predictions. Dust and molecules associated with planetary nebulae are considered as well. We then examine distances, binarity, and planetary nebula morphology and evolution. We end with mention of some of the advances that will be enabled by future observing capabilities.