The study of planetary nebulae with large telescopes

2005 
Planetary nebulae (PNe) are valuable objects to discuss a number of astrophysical issues. I illustrate here two topics in which the study of PNe has become particularly fashionable in the recent years, and which are best pursued using large telescopes.The first one concerns the use of PNe to investigate one of the less understood phenomena in the evolution of solar‐type stars, namely the physics and time evolution of the strong mass loss that, at the end of the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB), spoils completely stars of their envelopes in only few 105 years.The second one is the study of extragalactic PNe, a field that had a strong burst in the last years, as PNe have proven to be powerful test particles to discuss the cosmic distance scale, as well as the dynamics, stellar content, star formation history, and chemistry of galaxies and of the intergalactic medium.
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