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Highlights - Volume 486-2 (August I 2008)

Details: Published on 30 June 2008

HIGHLIGHTS: this week in A&A

Volume 486-2 (August I 2008)

In section 1. Letters to the Editor. Sub-Section 6. Interstellar and circumstellar matter

“Optical polarimetry toward the Pipe Nebula: revealing the importance of the magnetic field”, by F.O. Alves, G.A.P. Franco, and J.M. Girart, A&A 486, p. L13

Prestellar cores are thought to be precursors of protostars, and there has been considerable controversy about the importance of magnetic fields for their evolution. This is linked to the polarization of the cloud with which the "cores" are associated, and in this context, the structure of the field around the nearby (150 pc) Pipe nebula is of considerable interest. In this issue, F. Alves et al. present evidence that the field of the Pipe varies between sub-critical values (magnetic field supported) and super critical over the cloud.

In section 7. Stellar structure and evolution

“Spatially resolved spectroscopy of planetary nebulae and their halos.I. Five galactic disk objects”, by C. Sandin, D. Schönberner, M.M. Roth, M. Steffen, P. Böhm, and A. Monreal-Ibero, A&A 486, p. 545

The structure of planetary nebulae and, in particular, of the weak halos that often surround them allow inferences about mass loss in the final phases of AGB evolution. The study by Sandin et al. published in this issue uses integral field spectroscopy to study 5 planetary nebulae and shows that the mass loss increases by a factor 4-7 during the last 104 years of AGB evolution.