The Evolution of Planetary Nebulae, Their Precursors and Their Progeny — A Commentary

Abstract

There appears to exist in the minds of most of the participants of this conference a highly stylized picture of how the majority of all stars evolve after reaching the asymptotic giant branch. This is a fascinating development as, just three decades ago, no one understood what an asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star is or does, either theoretically or observationally, and, just two decades ago, no one understood the nature of the transition from AGB to planetary nebula, other than that it happened. And, yet, today, the evolution from AGB to planetary nebula and to white dwarf is described by a very beguiling picture whose outlines have become substantially fixed.