Planetary Nebula NGC 2818: Revealing its complex 3D morphology

TL;DR

This study presents a detailed 3D morpho-kinematic model of planetary nebula NGC 2818, revealing its complex structure, velocity fields, and evolutionary history involving binary interactions and jet ejections.

Contribution

It introduces an upgraded 3D model combining optical spectra and Fabry-Perot data, providing new insights into the nebula's morphology and kinematics.

Findings

Reconstructed main morphology with bipolar, filamentary, and knotty structures.

Measured expansion velocities of different components, e.g., 70 km/s for equatorial, 120 km/s for bipolar.

Discovered new filament and knotty structures with specific velocities.

Abstract

We carry out an advanced morpho-kinematic analysis of the Planetary Nebula (PN) NGC 2818, whose complex morphology is described by a basic bipolar component, filamentary structures and a knotty central region. We performed an upgrated 3D Morpho-kinematic (MK) model by employing the SHAPE software, combining for the first time in PNe optical 2D spatially resolved echelle spectra and Fabry-Perot data cubes. The best-fitting 3D model of NGC 2818 successfully reconstructs the main morphology, considering one bipolar component, radial filamentary structures, and an equatorial component as the geometrical locus of the group of cometary knots. The model shows that the equatorial component has the lower expansion velocity of the system at 70 $\pm$ 20 km/s. The velocity of the bipolar component is 120 $\pm$ 20 km/s, while all the filamentary structures were found to expand at higher velocities of 180 $\pm$ 20 km/s. Moreover, Fabry-Perot data revealed for the first time a north-eastern filament expanding at a mean velocity of 80 $\pm$ 20 km/s, while its equivalent counterpart in the southwestern region was confirmed by a new detected substructure in the echelle data. A new detected knotty structure at velocity -40 $\pm$ 20 km/s is also reported, as expelled material from the fragmented eastern lobe of the nebula. We interpret the overall structure of NGC 2818 as the result of the evolution of a binary system that underwent the common envelope phase, in conjunction with the ejections of a magnetized jet, misaligned with respect to the symmetry axis of the bipolar/elliptical shell.