Planetary Nebulae and the Galactic Merry-Go-Round
Robin Ciardullo (Penn State University)
Planetary nebulae have nothing to do with planets. They are the
stellar equivalent of a heart attack, an event that occurs when a
star like the Sun dies. They are also the prettiest objects in
the universe, and a Swiss Army Knife for a host of problems
extragalactic astronomy and cosmology. I'll describe how planetary
nebulae are created, what makes them shine the way they do, and
how they can be used to "weigh" galaxies like our own.
