the central star is the star left at the core of a planetary nebula.
the central star is the star left at the core of a planetary nebula.
star left at the core of a planetary nebula?
central star
after a star passes through the asymptotic giant branch (agb) phase, the short planetary nebula phase of stellar evolution begins as gases blow away from the central star at speeds of a few kilometers per second. the central star is the remnant of its agb progenitor, an electron-degenerate carbon-oxygen core that has lost most of its hydrogen envelope due to mass loss on the agb. as the gases expand, the central star undergoes a two-stage evolution, first growing hotter as it continues to contract and hydrogen fusion reactions occur in the shell around the core and then slowly cooling when the hydrogen shell is exhausted through fusion and mass loss. in the second phase, it radiates away its energy and fusion reactions cease, as the central star is not heavy enough to generate the core temperatures required for carbon and oxygen to fuse. during the first phase, the central star maintains constant luminosity, while at the same time it grows ever hotter, eventually reaching temperatures around 100,000 k. in the second phase, it cools so much that it does not give off enough ultraviolet radiation to ionize the increasingly distant gas cloud. the star becomes a white dwarf, and the expanding gas cloud becomes invisible to us, ending the planetary nebula phase of evolution. for a typical planetary nebula, about 10,000 years passes between its formation and recombination of the resulting plasma.
planetary nebula
bullet::::- pn – ("celestial object") planetary nebula









































bullet::::- "also" pne ("plural form of "planetary nebula")









































bullet::::- png – ("catalog") galactic planetary nebula









































bullet::::- pnlf – ("astrophysics terminology") planetary nebula luminosity function, "the density of planetary nebulae as a function of their luminosity"









































bullet::::- pnn – ("celestial object") planetary nebula nucleus, "the central star in a planetary nebula"









































bullet::::- pnnv – ("celestial object") planetary nebula nucleus variable, "a variable star in the center of a planetary nebula"









































bullet::::- poss – ("observing program") palomar observatory sky survey









































bullet::::- possum polarisation sky survey of the universe's magnetism
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