Current Unsolved Problems in Planetary Nebulae Research

Galaxies 2026 Open access

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Authors: Sun Kwok, Bruce Balick, You‐Hua Chu, Bruce J. Hrivnak, Alberto López, Quentin Andrew Parker, R. Sahai, Albert A. Zijlstra
DOI: 10.3390/galaxies14020030
Cited by: 1
References: 167

Abstract

While there has been significant progress in our understanding of the origin and evolution of planetary nebulae in the last 50 years, there remain several unsolved problems. These include the true 3D morphological structure of the nebulae, origin of multipolar nebulae, the dust and molecular distribution relative to the optical nebulosity, large-scale structures outside of the main nebulae, the relevance of binarity to planetary nebulae evolution, and a precise definition of the planetary nebula phenomenon. The long-standing problem of elemental abundance discrepancy still remains unsolved. In this paper, we summarize current observations related to these problems and present possible future directions to tackle them.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Stellar planetary and galactic studies Astronomy and Astrophysical Research History and Developments in Astronomy

Publication details

Journal / source
Galaxies
Publisher
MDPI AG
Volume
14
Issue
2
Pages
30–30
Publication date
9 April 2026
Language
EN