Planetary Nebulae (IAU S283) An Eye to the Future Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union Symposia and Colloquia Series

Planetary nebulae play a key role in stellar evolution as an important fraction of stellar matter in the Universe goes through the asymptotic giant branch and planetary nebula phases in its lifetime. They are major contributors to the chemical enrichment of the galaxies, especially for nitrogen and carbon. They also act as multi-wavelength laboratories for understanding atomic, molecular, dust and plasma processes in different astrophysical environments, and for studying the dynamics and mass distributions of galaxies. IAU Symposium 283 brought together experts from a variety of countries to present new results including: those from IPHAS and HERSCHEL; the detection of fullerenes in our galaxy and its neighbors; a new catalogue of about 600 planetary nebulae spectra; and the latest three-dimensional models of the common envelope phase. This volume is an essential reference for all those specializing in planetary nebulae.

Preface; Part I. New Results from Observations; Part II. The Stellar Evolution Connection: 1. Through the AGB and beyond; 2. Aspects of the PN phase; 3. Aspects of the central stars; Part III. The Cosmic Population of Galactic and Extragalactic PNe; Part IV. Future Endeavors in the Field; Posters; Author index; Object index.