Tomography of the unique on-going jet in the planetary nebula NGC 2392

Abstract

Jets (fast collimated outflows) are claimed to be the main shaping agent of the most asymmetric planetary nebula (PNe) as they impinge on the circumstellar material at late stages of the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) phase. The first jet detected in a PN was that of NGC 2392, yet there is no available image because its low surface brightness contrast with the bright nebular emission. Here we take advantage from the tomographic capabilities of GTC MEGARA high-dispersion integral field spectroscopic observations of the jet in NGC 2392 to gain unprecedented details of its morphology and kinematics. The jet of NGC 2392 is found to emanate from the central star, break through the walls of the inner shell of this iconic PN and extend outside the nebula's outermost regions with an S-shaped morphology suggestive of precession. At odds with the fossil jets found in mature PNe, the jet in NGC 2392 is currently being collimated and launched. The high nebular excitation of NGC 2392, which implies a He${}^{++}$/He ionization fraction too high to be attributed to the known effective temperature of the star, has been proposed in the past to hint at the presence of a hot white dwarf companion. In conjunction with the hard X-ray emission from the central star, the present-day jet collimation would support the presence of such a double-degenerate system where one component undergoes accretion from a remnant circumbinary disk of the common envelope phase.

12 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

References in corpus (9)

• The double-degenerate, super-Chandrasekhar nucleus of the planetary nebula Henize 2-428
• Space Velocity and Time Span of Jets in Planetary Nebulae
• Abundances of Planetary Nebula NGC2392
• NGC 7469 as seen by MEGARA: new results from high-resolution IFU spectroscopy
• An in-depth reanalysis of the alleged type Ia supernova progenitor Henize 2-428
• High velocity string of knots in the outburst of the Planetary Nebula Hb4
• Determining mass accretion and jet mass-loss rates in post-asymptotic giant branch binary systems
• The post-common-envelope X-ray binary nucleus of the planetary nebula NGC 2392
• Rummaging inside the Eskimo's parka: Variable asymmetric PN fast wind and a binary nucleus?

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• Planetary nebulae with Wolf-Rayet-type central stars -- II. Dissecting the compact planetary nebula M2-31 with GTC MEGARA
• Rings and arcs around evolved stars -- III. Physical conditions of the ring-like structures in the planetary nebula IC 4406 revealed by MUSE
• Adjusting the bow-tie: A morpho-kinematic study of NGC40