On the Velocity Field and the 3D Structure of the Galactic Soccer Ball Abell 43

Abstract

Planetary nebulae (PNe) and their central stars (CSs) are ideal tools to test evolutionary theory: photospheric properties of their exciting stars give stringent constraints for theoretical predictions of stellar evolution. The nebular abundances display the star's photosphere at the time of the nebula's ejection which allows to look back into the history of stellar evolution - but, more importantly, they even provide a possibility to investigate on the chemical evolution of our Galaxy because most of the nuclear processed material goes back into the interstellar medium via PNe. The recent developments in observation techniques and a new three-dimensional photoionization code MOCASSIN enable us to analyze PNe properties precisely by the construction of consistent models of PNe and CSs. In addition to PNe imaging and spectroscopy, detailed information about the velocity field within the PNe is a pre-requisite to employ de-projection techniques in modeling the physical structureof the PNe.