Spherical Planetary Nebulae

Abstract

By examining their mass loss history and their distribution in the galaxy I argue that spherical planetary nebulae (PNe) form a special group among all planetary nebulae. The smooth surface brightness of most spherical PNe suggests that their progenitors did not go through a final intensive wind (FIW, also termed superwind) phase. While 70 per cent of the PNe of all other PNe groups are closer to the galactic center than the sun is, only 30 per cent of spherical PNe are. These, plus the well known high scale height above the galactic plane of spherical PNe, suggest that the progenitors of spherical PNe are low mass stars having low metallicity. Although many stars have these properties, only about 10 per cent of all PNe are spherical. By comparing the galactic distribution of spherical PNe to the metallicity evolution in the galaxy, I find that the critical metallicity above which no spherical PNe are formed is [Fe/H] ~ -0.4. I explain this as well as other properties of spherical PNe in the context of the companion model for shaping PNe, arguing that spherical PNe are formed from stars which had no close companion, stellar or substellar, orbiting them.