Spectroscopic survey of faint planetary-nebula nuclei

III. A [WC] central star and two new PG1159 nuclei^★,★★

¹ Institut für Astronomie und Astrophysik, Kepler Center for Astro and Particle Physics, Eberhard Karls Universität, Sand 1, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
e-mail: werner@astro.uni-tuebingen.de
² Institut für Physik und Astronomie, Universität Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 24/25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
³ Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA
⁴ Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr., Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
⁵ Hobby-Eberly Telescope, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA

Received: 13 January 2024
Accepted: 29 February 2024

Abstract

We present spectroscopy of three hydrogen-deficient central stars of faint planetary nebulae, with effective temperatures (T_eff) in excess of 100 000 K. The nucleus of RaMul 2 is a Population II Wolf-Rayet star of spectral type [WC], and the central stars of Abell 25 and StDr 138 are two new members of the PG1159 class. Our spectral analyses reveal that their atmospheres have a similar chemical composition. They are dominated by helium and carbon, which was probably caused by a late helium-shell flash. Coincidentally, the three stars have similar masses of about M = 0.53 M_⊙ and hence form a post-asymptotic giant branch (AGB) evolutionary sequence of an initially early-K-type main sequence star with M = 0.8 M_⊙. The central stars cover the period during which the luminosity fades from about 3000 to 250 L_⊙ and the radius shrinks from about 0.15 to 0.03 R_⊙. The concurrent increase of the surface gravity during this interval from log g = 5.8 to 7.2 causes the shutdown of the stellar wind from an initial mass-loss rate of log Ṁ/(M_⊙ yr⁻¹) = −6.4, as measured for the [WC] star. Along the contraction phase, we observe an increase in T_eff from 112 000 K, marked by the [WC] star, to the maximum value of 140 000 K, and a subsequent cooling to 130 000 K, marked by the two PG1159 stars.