The messy death of a multiple star system and the resulting planetary nebula as observed by JWST
Creators: name: De Marco, Orsola
name: Akashi, Muhammad
name: Akras, Stavros
name: Alcolea, Javier
name: Aleman, Isabel
name: Amram, Philippe
name: Balick, Bruce
name: De Beck, Elvire
name: Blackman, Eric G.
name: Boffin, Henri M. J.
name: Boumis, Panos
name: Bublitz, Jesse
name: Bucciarelli, Beatrice
name: Bujarrabal, Valentin
name: Cami, Jan
name: Chornay, Nicholas
name: Chu, You-Hua
name: Corradi, Romano L. M.
name: Frank, Adam
name: Garcia-Segura, Guillermo
name: Garcia-Hernandez, D. A.
name: Garcia-Rojas, Jorge
name: Gomez-Llanos, Veronica
name: Goncalves, Denise R.
name: Guerrero, Martin A.
name: Jones, David
name: Karakas, Amanda I.
name: Kastner, Joel H.
name: Kwok, Sun
name: Lykou, Foteini
name: Manchado, Arturo
name: Matsuura, Mikako
name: McDonald, Iain
name: Monreal-Ibero, Ana
name: Monteiro, Hektor
name: Baez, Paula Moraga
name: Morisset, Christophe
name: Miszalski, Brent
name: Mohamed, Shazrene S.
name: Montez, Rodolfo
name: Nordhaus, Jason
name: de Oliveira, Claudia Mendes
name: Osborn, Zara
name: Otsuka, Masaaki
name: Parker, Quentin A.
name: Peeters, Els
name: Quint, Bruno C.
name: Quintana-Lacaci, Guillermo
name: Redman, Matt
name: Ruiter, Ashley J.
name: Sabin, Laurence
name: Contreras, Carmen Sanchez
name: Santander-Garcia, Miguel
name: Seitenzahl, Ivo
name: Sahai, Raghvendra
name: Soker, Noam
name: Speck, Angela K.
name: Stanghellini, Letizia
name: Steffen, Wolfgang
name: Toala, Jesus A.
name: Ueta, Toshiya
name: Van de Steene, Griet
name: Villaver, Eva
name: Ventura, Paolo
name: Vlemmings, Wouter
name: Walsh, Jeremy R.
name: Wesson, Roger
name: van Winckel, Hans
name: Zijlstra, Albert A.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2023
Subjects: subject: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
subject: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
subject: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Planetary nebulae (PNe), the ejected envelopes of red giant stars, provide us with a history of the last, mass-losing phases of 90 percent of stars initially more massive than the Sun. Here, we analyse James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Early Release Observation (ERO) images of the PN NGC3132. A structured, extended H2 halo surrounding an ionised central bubble is imprinted with spiral structures, likely shaped by a low-mass companion orbiting the central star at 40-60 AU. The images also reveal a mid-IR excess at the central star interpreted as a dusty disk, indicative of an interaction with another, closer companion. Including the previously known, A-type visual companion, the progenitor of the NGC3132 PN must have been at least a stellar quartet. The JWST images allow us to generate a model of the illumination, ionisation and hydrodynamics of the molecular halo, demonstrating the power of JWST to investigate complex stellar outflows. Further, new measurements of the A-type visual companion allow us to derive the value for the mass of the progenitor of a central star to date with excellent precision: 2.86+/-0.06 Mo. These results serve as path finders for future JWST observations of PNe providing unique insight into fundamental astrophysical processes including colliding winds, and binary star interactions, with implications for supernovae and gravitational wave systems.
description: 32 pages, 5 figures for the main article. 12 pages 8 figures for the supplementary material