The 3-D Structure of the Helix Nebula

Abstract

The 3-D structure of the Helix Nebula has been addressed multiple times and is slowly yielding to application of monochromatic emission line imaging, high resolution spectroscopy, and photoionization theory. The inner structure of the nebula is a toroidal disk filled with doubly ionized helium and is ionization bounded, with an extended vertical component resembling the structure of numerous bipolar nebulae. The outer structure is less well defined, with one construction being that there is an open-center outer-disk that is nearly perpendicular to the inner-disk and an alternate construction that explains the features seen just outside the inner-disk as being the result of the observer's line of sight passing through extended lobes perpendicular to the inner-disk. A definitive model awaits thorough velocity mapping in the major diagnostic emission lines. However, even our well-defined knowledge of the inner-disk defies explanation by the simplest application of the broadly accepted two-wind model for the formation of PN.