Prof. Dr. Anatoly Miroshnichenko
University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA
Revealing evolutionary details of evolved intermediate-mass stars
Abstract:
Intermediate-mass stars are stars with initial masses between approximately 2 and 8 solar masses end their lives as planetary nebulae. One of the latest stages of their evolution is the post-Asymptotic Giant Branch stage, where they exhibit various phenomena, such as thermal pulses, rapid surface temperature changes, unusual chemical compositions of the atmospheres, etc. At the same time, recognizing objects at this stage is not an easy task, because some of their observed properties are similar to those of other types of stellar systems. I will present recent studies of several such objects, which were not previously well understood.