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Elemental Abundances in Planetary Nebulae

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2017

James B. Kaler*
Affiliation:
Astronomy Department, University of Illinois

Extract

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To date, we have been able to gather information on the abundances of 16 elements, ranging from helium to iron, relative of course to hydrogen, the seventeenth. Of the lightest 26 elements only the lithium, beryllium, boron trio, aluminum, and the quintet of metals from scandium to magnanese have not been treated. The results of decades of labor on galactic planetaries are presented as succinctly as possible in Table 1, where the elements are shown in order of atomic number. I will take as a general approach that He/H and O/H have readily recognizable gradients and variations, and that the other elements either generally vary in concert with oxygen, or are best studied with respect to that atom. Column (2) classifies the element according to its most prominent behavior. The well-studied ratios that are generally constant, for which a true mean can be derived, are designated “C.” Those that are probably constant, but which are not well studied, are noted as “c.” The four elements with abundances significantly under solar, which are probably depleted from the nebular gas by grain formation, are called “D.” The letters “G” and “E” denote those for which vertical galactic gradients and/or enrichment by the parent star have been clearly established.

Information

Type
Section III: Chemical Abundances in Planetary Nebulae
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1983