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Recent abrupt changes of CW Leonis may indicate that we are witnessing the moment that the central carbon star is evolving off the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) and entering into the pre-planetary nebula (PPN) phase. The recent appearance of a red compact peak at the predicted stellar position is possibly an unveiling event of the star, and the radial beams emerging from the stellar position resemble the feature of the PPN Egg Nebula. The increase of light curve over two decades is also extraordinary, and it is possibly related to the phase transition. Decadal-period variations are further found in the residuals of light curves, in the relative brightness of radial beams, and in the extended halo brightness distribution. Further monitoring of the recent dramatic and decadal-scale changes of this most well-known carbon star CW Leonis at the tip of AGB is still highly essential, and will help us gain a more concrete understanding on the conditions for transition between the late stellar evolutionary phases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The AKARI Far-IR All-Sky Survey (AFASS) maps produced by the AKARI Infrared Astronomical Satellite enabled us to probe the far-IR sky for objects having surface brightnesses greater than a few to a couple of dozen MJy sr−1. Recently, we have verified that, if AFASS-measured fluxes are properly corrected for using the aperture correction method based on the empirical point-spread-function templates derived directly from the AFASS maps, point-source photometry measured from the AFASS maps reproduces fluxes in the AKARI bright source catalogue (BSC). We have surveyed the far-IR sky in the AFASS for Galactic planetary nebulae (PNe) based on the University of Hong Kong/Australian Astronomical Observatory/Strasbourg Observatory H α Planetary Nebula database (HASHPNDB), preliminarily yielding far-IR fluxes for roughly 1000 Galactic PNe including a few hundreds of PNe not listed in the AKARI /BSC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We characterized the dusty circumstellar nebula and central star of the C-rich bipolar planetary nebula (PN) NGC 6781 using our own Herschel data augmented with the archival data from UV to radio and constructed one of the most comprehensive photoionization PN models ever produced consisting of the ionized, atomic and molecular gas components as well as the dust component. We reproduced the observed spectral energy distribution (SED), constrained by 136 observational data points. The total nebula mass was estimated to be 0.41 M⊙, with a significant fraction (about 70 %) of it existing in the photo-dissociation region (PDR) surrounding the ionized nebula. This finding demonstrates the critical importance of the PDR in PNe, which are typically recognized as the hallmark of ionized/H+ region. It is therefore essential to characterize the PDR of the circumstellar nebula to understand material recycling in the Milky Way and other galaxies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We observed two proto-planetary nebulae, HD 56126 representing a source with an elliptical circumstellar shell, and IRAS 16594−4656 representing a source with a bipolar circumstellar shell, with ALMA in the 12CO and 13CO J=3−2 lines and neighboring continuum to see how the morpho-kinematics of CO gas and dust emission properties in their circumstellar environments differ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We performed a far-IR imaging survey of the circumstellar dust shells of 144 evolved stars as a mission program of the AKARI infrared astronomical satellite. Our objectives were to characterize the far-IR surface brightness distributions of the cold dust component in the circumstellar dust shells. We found that (1) far-IR emission was detected from all but one object, (2) roughly 60–70 % of the target sources showed some extension, (3) 29 sources were newly resolved in the far-IR in the vicinity of the target sources, (4) the results of photometry measurements were reasonable with respect to the entries in the AKARI/FIS Bright Source Catalogue, and (5) an IR two-color diagram would place the target sources in a roughly linear distribution that may correlate with the age of the circumstellar dust shell. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the current status update of the Herschel Planetary Nebula Survey Plus project (HerPlaNS+) based on the original General Observer HerPlaNS survey program during the OT1 cycle and the follow-up exhaustive archival search of PN observations using the PACS and SPIRE instruments on-board the Herschel Space Observatory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present Herschel PACS and SPIRE images of the dust shells around the planetary nebulae NGC 650, NGC 6853, and NGC 6720, as well as images showing the dust temperature in their shells. The latter show a rich structure, which indicates that internal extinction in the UV is important despite the highly evolved status of the nebulae. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We present Spitzer/MIPS far-infrared (FIR) mapping of O-rich AGB star, R Hya. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]